Madawaska—Restigouche

Madawaska—Restigouche covers the northwestern corner of New Brunswick, spanning all of Madawaska County and the western portion of Restigouche County. The riding stretches from the city of Edmundston in the south — perched at the junction of the Saint John and Madawaska Rivers near the Maine border — northward through the forested interior to the towns of Campbellton and Dalhousie along the Restigouche River and the Chaleur Bay coast. This is overwhelmingly francophone territory; roughly ninety per cent of residents speak French, and the Madawaska population is known as the Brayons.

Candidates

Bernard Valcourt (Conservative) — Valcourt was a veteran politician and lawyer making a return to federal politics after nearly two decades away. He had first been elected to the House of Commons in the 1984 Mulroney landslide, representing the old riding of Madawaska—Victoria. He served in several cabinet posts under Brian Mulroney, including Minister of State for Small Businesses and Tourism, Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, and Minister of Employment and Immigration. He lost his seat in the 1993 Liberal sweep. Valcourt subsequently entered provincial politics, winning a seat in the New Brunswick Legislature in 1995 and serving as Leader of the Opposition until 1997. Educated at Saint-Louis-Maillet College and the University of New Brunswick, he practiced law in Edmundston in the intervening years before declaring his candidacy in March 2011.

Jean-Claude D'Amours (Liberal) — D'Amours was the incumbent MP, first elected in 2004 and re-elected in 2006 and 2008. Born in Edmundston, he held degrees from the Universite de Moncton in arts and commerce. Before entering federal politics, he worked as a business development manager at the Business Development Bank of Canada and served as a city councillor in Edmundston from 1998 to 2004. In Parliament, he served as Official Opposition critic for National Revenue, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and Official Languages.

Widler Jules (NDP) — Jules carried the NDP banner in this strongly francophone riding.

Louis Berube ran as an Independent and Lynn Morrison represented the Green Party.

About the Riding

The economy of Madawaska—Restigouche has long been tied to forestry and cross-border trade. Edmundston, the riding's largest community with a population of roughly 16,000, is home to the Twin Rivers pulp mill (formerly Fraser Papers) and functions as a twin city with Madawaska, Maine, across the border — the two communities share deep economic interdependence. The Universite de Moncton's Edmundston campus provides post-secondary education in the region. Further north, Campbellton's economy centres on forestry and tourism, with a pulp mill in the nearby community of Atholville serving as the area's largest single employer. Dalhousie experienced significant economic disruption following the closure of its large pulp and paper mill in 2008, which had dominated the town's waterfront along the Restigouche River. The loss of that mill and a subsequent chemical plant closure left the community searching for new economic anchors. Heading into 2011, the riding faced pressing concerns around the future of the forestry sector, job losses in the northern communities, and the importance of federal transfer programs and bilingual services in this predominantly francophone region.