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Canada Votes 2008

Results, Ridings and Candidates

Richmond - Arthabaska

2008 Results

Richmond-Arthabaska
Party Candidate Votes Status
Updated: Nov. 7, 2008 5:00 PM EST 249/249 polls
BQ André Bellavance 23,913 Elected
CON Éric Lefebvre 15,085
LIB Gwyneth Grant 6,604
NDP Stéphane Ricard 4,509
GRN François Fillion 1,357
IND Jean Landry 526

Unofficial results were updated at the time shown following judicial recounts in six ridings. For more recent results, visit Elections Canada. The CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites. External links will open in a new window.

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This riding is located in southern Quebec, just north of Sherbrooke. It contains the regional county municipalities of Asbestos and Arthabaska, and part of Le Val-St-Francis. The cities of Richmond and Windsor and the municipalities of St-Denis-de-Brompton, St-François-Xavier-de-Brompton, St-Claude, Ulverton, Val-Joli, Cleveland and Melbourne fall in the riding.

Manufacturing forms the economic base in this riding. The average family income is $61,002 and the unemployment rate is 5.7 per cent.

According to the 2006 census, 95 per cent of residents speak French as their mother tongue, while just over three per cent speak English. The total immigrant population is less than two per cent.

In the 2004 redistribution, 92 per cent of Richmond-Arthabaska was unchanged and eight per cent of Lotbinière-L'érable and small areas from Drummond and Compton-Stanstead were added. The riding of Richmond-Arthabaska was created in the 1996 redistribution from 53 per cent of Lotbinière and 57 per cent of Richmond-Wolfe.

Population: 100,116 (2006 census; an increase of 2.6% since 2001)

Political History

Bloc Québécois incumbent André Bellavance won re-election by a wide margin in 2006, defeating Conservative Jean Landry.

Bellevance, who had been defeated in 2000 in a tight race against Progressive Conservative incumbent André Bachand, won the 2004 election with 55 per cent of the vote, after Bachand refused to join the new Conservative party and stepped down. The runner-up in 2004, with 27 per cent of the vote, was Liberal Christine St-Pierre.

The old Richmond riding was held by Créditiste Leonel Beaudoin from 1968 until 1979, when he was defeated by Liberal Alain Tardif. Tardif won again in 1980 and 1984, but was defeated by Progressive Conservative Yvon Côté in 1988. Gaston Leroux of the BQ won Richmond-Wolfe in 1993.

Lotbinière riding was PC from 1957 to 1963 and then Liberal for two terms. André Fortin won for the Créditistes in 1968, 1972 and 1974. He was leader of the Social Credit party after Réal Caouette, but died in a car accident in 1977. Créditiste Richard Janelle won the 1978 byelection and the 1979 general election. He switched to join Joe Clark's minority Progressive Conservative government and was defeated as a PC in 1980 by Liberal Jean-Guy Dubois. PC Maurice Tremblay won in 1984 and 1988 and the BQ's Jean Landry won in 1993.

Richmond-Arthabaska:

  • 1997, 2000 - PC
  • 2004, 2006 - BQ