Hochelaga

Hochelaga is a federal riding in eastern Montreal, covering the historically working-class neighbourhood of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and adjacent areas. The riding takes in the western portion of the Borough of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, parts of the eastern Rosemont neighbourhood in the Borough of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, and portions of the Centre-Sud neighbourhood in the Borough of Ville-Marie. The riding is dominated by Montreal's Olympic Park complex, including the Olympic Stadium built for the 1976 Summer Games.

Candidates

Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet (NDP) — Born in 1955, Boutin-Sweet was an anthropologist and museum professional who held a master's degree in anthropology from the University of Alberta. She had participated in archaeological digs across Canada and the United States and taught at the University of Alberta's Campus Saint-Jean and Grant MacEwan University. Since 1992, she had worked as a guide and animator at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum in Montreal, where she co-founded the employees' union affiliated with the Centrale des syndicats démocratiques and served on its pay equity and bargaining committees. She was a first-time candidate in the 2011 election.

Daniel Paillé (Bloc Québécois) — Born in Montreal in 1950, Paillé was an economist, university professor, and former provincial politician with deep roots in Quebec's business and public-finance establishment. He held a bachelor's degree in business administration from HEC Montréal and a master's in economics from UQAM. He had taught economics at Université Laval and Université du Québec, served as a special adviser to provincial finance minister Jacques Parizeau, and served as vice-president of Quebec's Société générale de financement. Elected as a Parti Québécois MNA for Prévost in 1994, he served as Quebec's Minister of Industry, Trade, Science and Technology under Premier Parizeau. He later became a professor of finance at HEC Montréal. Paillé won a federal by-election in Hochelaga in November 2009 and was the sitting MP heading into the 2011 campaign.

Gilbert Thibodeau (Liberal) — Thibodeau ran as the Liberal candidate in the Hochelaga riding.

Audrey Castonguay (Conservative) — Castonguay carried the Conservative banner in the riding.

The remaining candidates — Yaneisy Delgado Dihigo (Green Party), Hugo Samson Veillette (Rhinoceros), Marianne Breton Fontaine (Communist), and Christine Dandenault (Marxist-Leninist) — also contested the seat.

About the Riding

Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is one of Montreal's most storied working-class neighbourhoods. It boomed as an industrial suburb in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when factories producing shoes, textiles, tobacco, and processed foods drew thousands of workers to the area. The neighbourhood experienced severe economic decline beginning in the 1980s as manufacturing departed, and by 2011 it remained one of Montreal's lower-income areas, with significant concentrations of poverty in the Hochelaga-Nord and Maisonneuve sub-neighbourhoods.

The riding's landscape is dominated by the Olympic Park complex, including the Olympic Stadium, the Biodôme, the Botanical Garden, and the Insectarium — collectively branded as the Espace pour la vie. These institutions are major employers and cultural draws. The neighbourhood also includes the Marché Maisonneuve, a landmark public market, and several community organizations working on poverty reduction and social housing.

By 2011, the neighbourhood was beginning to show signs of gentrification, with new cafés and small businesses appearing along Ontario Street and Sainte-Catherine Street East. Key local concerns heading into the election included affordable housing, social services funding, poverty reduction, public transit improvements, and the revitalization of the Olympic Stadium site. The riding's overwhelmingly Francophone population and working-class character had historically made it a Bloc Québécois stronghold.