Laurentides - Labelle

This is a largely rural riding in southwestern Quebec, northwest of Montreal. The riding contains the regional county municipalities of Antoine-Labelle and Les Laurentides and part of Les Pays-d'en-Haut. It includes Doncaster Indian Reserve No. 17, the cities of Ste-Marguerite-Estérel and Ste-Adèle and the municipalities of Ste-Anne-des-Lacs, St-Sauveur, St-Sauveur-des-Monts and Piedmont.

Tourism and related industries are important to the economy because of the golf courses and ski resorts in the riding. The average family income is $64,704 with an unemployment rate of 9.1 per cent.

According to the 2006 census the total immigrant population is less than four per cent and 92 per cent of residents are francophone.

The riding of Laurentides-Labelle was created in the 2004 redistribution from 45 per cent of Laurentides riding and 33 per cent of Pontiac-Gatineau-Labelle riding.

Population: 105,884 (2006 census; an increase of 10.1% since 2001)

Political History

In 2006, Bloc Québécois incumbent Johanne Deschamps received more than two and a half times as many votes as Conservative Jean-Serge Beauregard. It was another strong showing for Deschamps who beat Liberal Dominique Boyer inby more than 14,000 votes in 2004. Deschamps had lost to Liberal Robert Bertrand in Pontiac-Gatineau-Labelle in 2000.

In 2000 in Laurentides, BQ candidate Monique Guay also defeated Boyer to win a third term.

Liberal Henri Bourassa was MP in Labelle riding from 1896-1930. He was founder of the newspaper Le Devoir and a strong voice against conscription and for Quebec nationalism.

Liberal Maurice Dupras won the 1970 byelection in Labelle and was re-elected for another four terms. He was appointed Consul General in Bordeaux, France, in 1984. Then prime minister Brian Mulroney cancelled the appointment when the Progressive Conservatives took office and Dupras sued. Tory Fernand Ladouceur won in 1984, and in 1988, PC Jacques Vien became the riding's MP.

Laurentides-Labelle:

2004, 2006 - BQ