Louis-Hébert, QC — 2008 Federal Election Results Map

Louis-Hébert

Louis-Hébert takes in the southwestern quarter of Quebec City: the postwar suburb of Sainte-Foy, the riverside estates and institutions of Sillery, and the older village core of Cap-Rouge at the western end — three former cities absorbed into the enlarged capital in 2002. The 2006 census counted 101,730 residents.

Candidates

Pascal-Pierre Paillé (Bloc Québécois) — Born in Sherbrooke in 1978 and a teacher by profession, Paillé was the Bloc's choice to win back a seat the party had narrowly lost in 2006. He is a nephew of Daniel Paillé, the Parti Québécois MNA who served as Quebec's industry minister in the mid-1990s.

Luc Harvey (Conservative) — Harvey had held the riding since 2006, when he edged out Bloc Québécois incumbent Roger Clavet in one of the closest contests in the province. He belonged to the group of Conservative members around Quebec City on which the party's Quebec strategy rested.

Jean Beaupré (Liberal) — Beaupré carried the Liberal banner in a riding the party had held as recently as the early 2000s but where it had since fallen back.

Denis Blanchette (New Democratic Party) — Born in 1956, Blanchette was a computer analyst and public servant making his second consecutive run in Louis-Hébert for the NDP.

Michelle Fontaine (Green Party) — Fontaine stood for the Greens.

Stefan Jetchick ran for the Christian Heritage Party.

About the Riding

Institutions rather than industry set the tone here. Université Laval's campus fills a large block of Sainte-Foy and is one of the region's biggest employers, drawing faculty, researchers, staff and tens of thousands of students; the Cégep de Sainte-Foy and a cluster of research centres add to the effect. The result is a highly educated electorate with an unusually large share of university and public sector salaries, and one that follows federal research funding and student aid closely.

The Quebec City campaign was shaped in large part by culture. The government's decision to end a series of arts and cultural export programs, made public in August, dominated Quebec coverage from the opening days of the campaign, and the Bloc pressed the issue relentlessly in ridings like this one. It landed with particular force in a capital that had spent the year marking the 400th anniversary of its founding with federally funded celebrations.

Two other files were distinctly local. The Quebec Bridge, which crosses to Lévis from the riding's river shore and carries both rail and road traffic, had become a running federal embarrassment. Canadian National took ownership of the structure in 1993 and undertook a restoration and painting program; the work stopped in 2005 with about 40 percent of it done, engineers documented advancing corrosion, and Ottawa and the railway remained at odds over who owed the rest. Traffic and transit along the Boulevard Laurier commercial corridor — Place Sainte-Foy, Place de la Cité and Laurier Québec draw shoppers from across the region and from the south shore — were the other constant.

Sillery occupies the bluffs above the water, a compact and expensive district of heritage houses and old religious properties. Cap-Rouge keeps a village feel at the riding's western edge. The population is overwhelmingly francophone, and the seat's habit of changing hands — Liberal, Bloc and Conservative in successive periods — made it one of the genuinely uncertain ridings in the province.