Abitibi - Témiscamingue

The riding is located in the southwest corner of Quebec, on the border with Ontario. It stretches from the Ottawa River in the south to include a small part of James Bay in the north. The riding includes the city of Rouyn-Noranda, the regional county municipalities of Abitibi-Ouest, Abitibi and Timiscaming, and part of the Municipality of Baie-James. There are several reserves, including Pikogan Indian Reserve, Timiskaming Indian Reserve No. 19 and Eagle Village First Nation-Kipawa Indian Reserve, and the Indian settlements of Hunter's Point and Winneway.

The service sector, retail trade and manufacturing are major sources of employment, along with some mining and agriculture. The average family income is $64,635 and the unemployment rate is 9.6 per cent.

More than 94 per cent of the population cited French as their mother tongue, and the total immigrant population is just over one per cent. The 2006 census lists just ten per cent of residents over age 25 as having a university certificate or degree..

In 2004, the riding became Abitibi-Témiscamingue, after 26 per cent of Abitibi-Baie James-Nunavik was added, an additional 24,613 people. This riding was created in 1966 from Pontiac-Témiscamingue and Villeneuve. In the 1996 redistribution, it added one per cent of Abitibi. At that point the name of the riding was changed to Rouyn-Noranda-Témiscamingue, but a private member's bill quickly changed the name back to Témiscamingue.

Population: 102,795 (2006 census; a decrease of 1.7% since 2001)

Political History

The Bloc Québécois held on to this riding in 2006, after recapturing it from the Liberals in 2004. The Bloc's Marc Lemay won easily in 2006, capturing more than twice as many votes as second-place Conservative Marie-Josée Carbonneau.

For many years, this political territory was held by the Social Credit party. Réal Caouette won the original riding of Pontiac for Social Credit in a byelection in 1946 and held on to the seat, as the riding grew and changed, until his death in 1976. His son Gilles Caouette, also running under the Créditiste banner, won the 1977 byelection, but lost to Liberal Henri Tousignant in 1979.

Tousignant kept the seat in 1980, but was defeated by PC Gariel Desjardin in 1984. Desjardin was re-elected in 1988, but in 1993 the BQ's Pierre Brien was voted in. The BQ held on to the riding until it went to Liberal Gilbert Barrette in a 2003 byelection, called when Brien left federal politics to run provincially for Action Démocratique du Québec. Marc Lemay won for the Bloc in 2004.

• 1968, 1972, 1974, 1977 byelection - SC
• 1979, 1980 - LIB
• 1984, 1988 - PC
• 1993, 1997, 2000 - BQ
• 2003 byelection - LIB
• 2004, 2006 - BQ