Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean, QC — 2008 Federal Election Results Map

Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean

Spread over more than 57,000 square kilometres, this riding wrapped the western and northern shores of Lac Saint-Jean and reached far north into unorganized boreal territory where cutting rights, outfitting camps and hydro installations are close to the only activity. It combined the Domaine-du-Roy and Maria-Chapdelaine regional county municipalities with the southern end of Lac-Saint-Jean-Est, and its principal towns were Roberval, Saint-Félicien and Dolbeau-Mistassini.

Candidates

Denis Lebel (Conservative) — The sitting member, fighting his first general election in the seat. Born in Roberval in May 1954, Lebel managed a hotel and ran a restaurant before turning to public life, then served as mayor of Roberval from 2000 to 2007. He had been a member of the Bloc Québécois from 1993 to 2001. He entered the Commons through the by-election of 17 September 2007, called after Michel Gauthier — the Bloc's leader in 1996 and 1997 and its House leader for a decade after that — gave up the seat that July on health grounds.

Claude Pilote (Bloc Québécois) — A Roberval resident, he carried the Bloc banner in a seat the party had held from 1993 until the by-election.

Bernard Garneau (Liberal) — The Liberal nominee.

Catherine Forbes (NDP) — Stood for the New Democrats.

Jocelyn Tremblay (Green Party) — From Saint-Eugène-d'Argentenay, he was the Green candidate.

About the Riding

Lac Saint-Jean dominates everything here. Roberval, on the southwestern shore and home to about 10,500 people, is the seat of the Domaine-du-Roy RCM and the traditional finish line of the Traversée internationale du lac Saint-Jean, the long-distance swim held there since 1955. Six kilometres north lies Mashteuiatsh, a reserve of roughly 1,750 people belonging to the Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation, enclosed by the RCM's territory but administered separately from it.

Saint-Félicien, about the same size as Roberval, is known for its Zoo sauvage, opened in 1960 and stocked with boreal species, and for the Cégep de Saint-Félicien and its forestry and natural-resource programs. Dolbeau-Mistassini, population 14,546 and the commercial centre of the Maria-Chapdelaine RCM, grew up around a paper mill dating to 1926 and marks the wild blueberry harvest with a festival every August. Normandin, Albanel, Saint-Prime, Métabetchouan–Lac-à-la-Croix and Hébertville fill in the farming belt around the lake, where dairy herds and blueberry fields set the pattern.

French is the home language of virtually the entire population. Forestry carries the rest of the economy: sawmills, pulp and paper, and the cutting rights and woodlots that feed them.

The collapse in United States housing starts and the unresolved softwood lumber dispute had cut deeply into that sector in the years before 2008, and mill curtailments were the central economic anxiety of the campaign. Running behind them was the steady departure of younger workers toward Quebec City and Montreal, a demographic drain that shaped local arguments over regional development spending, transfer programs and the federal role in supporting resource towns.