Jeanne-Le Ber

Jeanne-Le Ber is a federal riding in southwestern Montreal, encompassing the Borough of Verdun, the neighbourhood of Île-des-Soeurs (Nuns' Island), and the historically working-class communities of Saint-Henri, Little Burgundy, and Pointe-Saint-Charles in the Borough of Le Sud-Ouest. The riding runs along the south shore of the island of Montreal, bordered by the Saint Lawrence River and the Lachine Canal.

Candidates

Tyrone Benskin (NDP) — Born in Bristol, England, in 1958, Benskin moved to Canada at age nine and built a career spanning more than 200 film, television, and stage productions over four decades. He studied theatre at Concordia University and appeared on stages including the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, the National Arts Centre, and the Centaur Theatre in Montreal. He served as artistic director of the Black Theatre Workshop, Canada's oldest Black theatre company, from 2005 to 2010, and was a former national vice-president of ACTRA, a position he held for two terms. NDP leader Jack Layton announced his candidacy in January 2011.

Thierry St-Cyr (Bloc Québécois) — Born in La Plaine, Quebec, in 1977, St-Cyr was a computer engineer who held a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the Université de Sherbrooke and the Université de technologie de Compiègne in France. He had worked as a management consultant with CGI and served as president of an information technology company. He narrowly lost to Liberal Liza Frulla in the riding in 2004 by just 72 votes and won the seat in 2006, serving as vice-chair of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. He was seeking his third term.

Mark Bruneau (Liberal) — Bruneau was a Liberal organizer and fundraiser who had been involved in the party's activities in the riding. He ran as the Liberal candidate in 2011.

Pierre Lafontaine (Conservative) — Lafontaine ran as the Conservative candidate.

Richard Noël (Green Party) and Eileen Studd (Marxist-Leninist) also contested the seat.

About the Riding

Jeanne-Le Ber takes in some of Montreal's most storied working-class neighbourhoods. Saint-Henri and Pointe-Saint-Charles developed as industrial communities in the nineteenth century, their economies driven by the Lachine Canal's factories, rail yards, and manufacturing plants. The closure of the canal to commercial traffic in 1970 and the broader deindustrialization of the late twentieth century devastated these neighbourhoods, leading to decades of high poverty and population decline.

By 2011, the area was undergoing significant transformation. The reopening of the Lachine Canal as a recreational waterway had spurred condo development along its banks, and gentrification was reshaping Saint-Henri and Pointe-Saint-Charles, creating tensions between longtime residents and newer arrivals. Little Burgundy, historically home to Montreal's Black community and the cradle of Canadian jazz, was also experiencing redevelopment pressures.

The Borough of Verdun, the riding's most populated area, is a dense residential community along the Saint Lawrence River with a mix of Francophone and anglophone residents. Île-des-Soeurs, a quieter and more affluent residential island connected to Verdun by bridge, provides a demographic contrast to the riding's working-class core.

Heading into the 2011 election, key local concerns included affordable housing amid rapid gentrification, the future of social housing stock, public transit access, poverty reduction, and the environmental remediation of former industrial sites along the Lachine Canal corridor.