Both parties were formed as breakaway groups from the left wing of the governing Montreal Citizens' Movement (MCM) in late 1989, and they had refrained from running candidates against one another in the mayoral contest and most council races of the 1990 municipal election.
The two parties announced plans for an official merger in June 1994, both to overcome the Democratic Coalition's internal divisions and to create a larger political movement on the municipal left.
[3] The Democratic Coalition and Ecology Montreal initially continued as autonomous movements within the merged party, which was overseen by a six-member executive with representatives from both organizations.
[5] Its mayoral candidate, Yolande Cohen, had previously been a member of Ecology Montreal (whose former leader, Dimitri Roussopoulos, was a supporter of the merger).
The party promised to create neighbourhood councils that would have real powers over local services and to replace the regional Montreal Urban Community's public security commission with a new body that would allow increased civilian oversight of the police.