Jonquiere—Alma

The riding of Jonquiere—Alma spans two of the principal urban centres of the Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean region in northeastern Quebec. It includes the borough of Jonquiere within the city of Saguenay and the city of Alma on the shores of Lac Saint-Jean, along with surrounding municipalities such as Begin, Larouche, Saint-Ambroise, Saint-Charles-de-Bourget, and Saint-David-de-Falardeau. Created in 2003 from parts of the former Jonquiere and Lac-Saint-Jean—Saguenay ridings, the district covers a swath of the boreal landscape roughly 200 kilometres north of Quebec City.

Candidates

Claude Patry (NDP) — A labour leader from the Saguenay region, Patry served as president of the Syndicat national des employes de l'aluminium d'Arvida, a Canadian Auto Workers-affiliated union representing approximately 2,300 Rio Tinto Alcan workers. He gained prominence in 2004 when the union organized an occupation of the Arvida smelter after Alcan announced closures affecting 550 workers, with employees continuing to run the plant under union supervision during the dispute. Heading into the 2011 election, Patry brought deep roots in the aluminum industry and organized labour to his candidacy.

Jean-Pierre Blackburn (Conservative) — Born in Jonquiere in 1948, Blackburn held a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master's degree in regional studies from the Universite du Quebec a Chicoutimi. A businessman by profession, he was first elected to the House of Commons as Progressive Conservative MP for Jonquiere in 1984, serving until 1993 under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. He returned to federal politics in 2006, winning Jonquiere—Alma for the Conservatives. Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Blackburn served as Minister of Labour, then Minister of National Revenue, and entered the 2011 campaign as Minister of Veterans Affairs — making him one of the few Conservative cabinet ministers from the Saguenay region.

Pierre Forest (Bloc Quebecois), Claude Ringuette (Liberal), and France Bergeron (Green Party) also contested the riding.

About the Riding

Jonquiere—Alma sits at the heart of what is often called Quebec's "Aluminum Valley." The Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean region is home to multiple Rio Tinto Alcan smelters — including the historic Arvida complex in Jonquiere and a newer facility in Alma completed in 2000 — that together produce roughly a third of Canada's primary aluminum output. The borough of Jonquiere, with a population of approximately 54,000 in 2011, grew up around the aluminum industry and serves as a commercial hub for the western part of the city of Saguenay. Alma, the second-largest city in the region with a population of around 30,000, also developed around hydroelectric power generation, pulp and paper production, and aluminum smelting on the Grande-Decharge River.

Beyond the aluminum plants, the regional economy encompasses forestry, agriculture in the fertile Lac-Saint-Jean lowlands, and a growing tourism sector anchored by the Saguenay Fjord and surrounding boreal wilderness. The region faces persistent challenges common to resource-dependent communities in northern Quebec: an aging population, youth out-migration, and vulnerability to global commodity price swings. Federal investment in infrastructure and economic diversification were recurring campaign themes. The riding had swung between sovereigntist and federalist representation over the decades, with Blackburn's 2006 win a notable Conservative beachhead in a traditionally Bloc-friendly region.