Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC — 2008 Federal Election Results Map

Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup

Four regional county municipalities strung along the south shore of the St. Lawrence — Montmagny, L'Islet, Kamouraska and Rivière-du-Loup — made up this riding of roughly 7,300 square kilometres. It ran downriver from the eastern edge of Chaudière-Appalaches into the Bas-Saint-Laurent, and inland from the shoreline over the Appalachian ridge toward the American border. About 97,500 people lived there at the 2006 census.

Candidates

Paul Crête (Bloc Québécois) — The sitting member, and a resident of La Pocatière. Born at Hérouxville in April 1953 and a school administrator before entering politics, Crête was first sent to Ottawa in 1993 for Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup and had won every contest since as the boundaries shifted around him. He handled rural solidarity, pension reform and transport in his first term, then human resources development, and from 2002 was the Bloc Québécois industry critic — a portfolio that placed him squarely on the manufacturing and forestry files driving his region's economy.

Denis Laflamme (Conservative) — A Montmagny resident, he ran for the Conservatives.

Jean Bouchard (Liberal) — From Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, he was the Liberal nominee.

Gaston Hervieux (NDP) — From L'Isle-Verte, at the eastern end of the riding, he stood for the New Democrats.

Claude Gaumond (Green Party) — The Green candidate, from Cacouna.

Aubert Côté (Christian Heritage Party) — A food-processing labourer, he completed the ballot for the Christian Heritage Party.

About the Riding

The settled part of the riding is a narrow band of farmland between the river and the escarpment, with villages strung along Route 132 and the older seigneurial road. Rivière-du-Loup is the largest town and the service hub of the eastern half, sitting where Autoroute 20 meets Route 185, the highway carrying traffic toward New Brunswick; its ferry to Saint-Siméon is one of the few crossings of the St. Lawrence downstream of Quebec City.

La Pocatière, in the Kamouraska RCM, holds the region's most important industrial plant. It began in the early 1960s turning out Moto-Ski snowmobiles, was bought by Bombardier in 1971, and was re-tooled for rail vehicles after the company took the contract to build cars for the Montreal metro. The town also hosts the Institut de technologie agroalimentaire and a cégep, making it the education centre of the western Bas-Saint-Laurent. Montmagny anchors the far end of the riding with small manufacturing, an accordion festival and the snow geese that settle on the river flats each spring and autumn. Peat harvesting in the Kamouraska bogs, dairy and grain farming, woodlots and a lengthening tourist season fill out the rest of the economy.

Almost everyone here speaks French at home, and at the 2001 census the riding recorded the highest proportion of Catholics of any in Canada, above 97%. The population was aging and slowly shrinking, with younger residents leaving for Quebec City. Because farming, forestry, food processing and tourism all run on seasonal schedules, employment insurance eligibility rules are a permanent federal concern in the four counties, and they came up repeatedly during the campaign. Softwood lumber quotas and sawmill closures weighed on the inland municipalities, while the order book at the La Pocatière plant, which depends on public transit contracts awarded by governments, was a standing local preoccupation.