Laurentides—Labelle

Laurentides—Labelle is a vast riding stretching across the Laurentian Mountains northwest of Montreal, encompassing the Regional County Municipalities of Antoine-Labelle, Les Laurentides, and the eastern part of Les Pays-d'en-Haut. Its principal communities include the resort town of Mont-Tremblant, the regional service centre of Mont-Laurier, and the smaller towns of Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Saint-Sauveur, and Val-David. The riding covers a huge geographic area from the ski-country suburbs north of Montreal deep into the sparsely populated boreal interior.

Candidates

Marc-Andre Morin (NDP) — An environmentalist and journalist by background, Morin had also worked in forestry and construction in the Yukon earlier in his career. Born in 1951, he entered the 2011 campaign as a first-time federal candidate, bringing environmental advocacy and knowledge of natural resource issues to the race in a riding where forestry and conservation were important local concerns.

Johanne Deschamps (Bloc Quebecois) — Born in Saint-Jovite in 1959, Deschamps was a former administrative assistant and political attache who entered municipal politics before moving to the federal level. She served as a councillor in Val-Barrette from 1994 to 2004 and as a commissioner of the Pierre-Neveu School Board in Mont-Laurier from 1998 to 2004. First elected to the House of Commons for the Bloc Quebecois in 2004 after an unsuccessful run in Pontiac—Gatineau—Labelle in 2000, she was re-elected in 2006 and 2008 and entered the 2011 campaign as a three-term incumbent.

Jean-Marc Lacoste (Liberal), Guy Joncas (Conservative), and Francois Beauchamp (Green Party) also contested the riding. Mikael St-Louis ran for the Marxist-Leninist Party.

About the Riding

Laurentides—Labelle straddles two distinct economic zones. The southern portion, anchored by resort towns like Mont-Tremblant and Saint-Sauveur, is one of Quebec's premier tourism destinations. Mont-Tremblant's ski resort, golf courses, and year-round casino draw visitors from across eastern North America, and the P'tit Train du Nord linear park — a converted rail trail running 234 kilometres through the Laurentians — generates tens of millions of dollars in annual economic impact for the region. These communities have experienced steady growth driven by tourism, retirement migration, and seasonal residents.

The northern half of the riding, centred on Mont-Laurier with a population of roughly 14,000, is more remote and resource-dependent. Forestry, dairy farming, and road transport are the main economic drivers in the Antoine-Labelle MRC, and the area faces the demographic pressures typical of Quebec's hinterland regions — an aging population and limited employment options for young people. Between the resort south and the resource-based north, communities like Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts and Val-David serve as smaller service centres with a mix of tourism, arts, and local commerce. Access to health care, broadband connectivity, and transportation infrastructure across the riding's vast territory were persistent concerns. The riding had been held by the Bloc Quebecois since its creation in 2004, with Deschamps building a strong local profile over three terms.