Beauport—Limoilou

Located in the eastern part of Quebec City, the riding of Beauport—Limoilou encompassed the boroughs of Limoilou and most of Beauport. Limoilou, situated just north of the St. Charles River and Old Quebec, was one of the city's older working-class neighbourhoods, while Beauport stretched eastward along the north shore of the St. Lawrence toward Montmorency Falls.

Candidates

Raymond Côté (NDP) — A resident of the Beauport-Limoilou area since his student days, Côté held a Bachelor of Arts from Université Laval, earned in 1993. He had worked for Services Québec, the provincial government services agency. He had previously run as an NDP candidate in the riding of Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière in 2006 and 2008, without success.

Sylvie Boucher (Conservative) — Boucher had worked in marketing, sales, and the private sector before entering politics, and had also worked in the National Assembly of Quebec and served as assistant chief of staff to the Canadian Minister of Tourism. She was first elected in the 2006 election by a narrow margin of 820 votes over the Bloc Québécois and was re-elected in 2008. Following her first election, she was appointed parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister. She was seeking a third term.

Michel Létourneau (Bloc Québécois) — Létourneau stood as the Bloc candidate in a riding where the party had been competitive in the previous two elections.

Lorraine Chartier (Liberal) — Chartier ran as the Liberal candidate.

Louise Courville (Green Party), Anne-Marie Genest (CHP Canada), and Claude Moreau (Marxist-Leninist) also contested the seat.

About the Riding

Beauport—Limoilou was a riding of contrasts. Limoilou was a dense, historically working-class neighbourhood with a high proportion of renters — over 80 percent in some areas — and lower median incomes than the Quebec City average. Its streets of triplexes and duplexes gave way to small commercial strips and community institutions. Beauport, by contrast, included more suburban single-family homes and newer residential developments along the river.

The riding's institutional anchors included the Hôpital de l'Enfant-Jésus, a major trauma centre and teaching hospital affiliated with Université Laval, which also maintained medical research facilities in the area, including the LOEX regenerative medicine institute. Local manufacturers in the riding produced paint, construction materials, and hospital supplies, while food transportation was an important sector.

The riding's population was overwhelmingly francophone, with visible minorities comprising roughly ten percent of residents. Housing affordability, urban revitalization in Limoilou, and access to health care and social services were key local concerns. The Quebec City region as a whole was experiencing economic growth in 2011, with low unemployment relative to the rest of the province, but the benefits were unevenly distributed across the riding's neighbourhoods.