Laval—Les Îles

Laval—Les Îles covers the western portion of Île Jésus in the city of Laval, bounded by the Rivière des Mille Îles to the northwest and the Rivière des Prairies to the southwest. The riding encompasses the neighbourhoods of Laval-Ouest, Laval-sur-le-Lac, Sainte-Dorothée, Îles-Laval, and the western portions of Chomedey and Fabreville.

Candidates

François Pilon (NDP) — Born in 1958 in Laval, Pilon had a background in architectural design and deep roots in the labour movement. He served as vice-president of the Syndicat des Cols Bleus de la Ville de Laval from 1998 to 2006 and helped lead his union into the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in 2000. The 2011 campaign was his fourth attempt at federal office, having previously run in the riding of Honoré-Mercier.

Karine Joizil (Liberal) — A litigation lawyer recruited late in the campaign to succeed retiring five-term Liberal MP Raymonde Folco, Joizil held a law degree from the Université de Montréal and a graduate diploma in public administration from the École nationale d’administration publique. She had been called to the Quebec bar in 2001 and was practising at the firm Fasken Martineau DuMoulin, focusing on civil liability, administrative law, and intellectual property.

Zaki Ghavitian (Conservative) — An engineer with a distinguished 36-year career at Hydro-Québec, where he held senior positions in project cost control and planning. Ghavitian had served as president of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec from 2006 to 2009 and also led Engineers Canada, the Corporation of Services of Engineers of Quebec, and the Interprofessional Council of Quebec. He had previously run for borough mayor of Ahuntsic-Cartierville in the 2009 Montreal municipal election.

Mohamedali Jetha (Bloc Québécois) — Jetha was making a return run in this riding for the Bloc Québécois, having previously been a candidate in Laval in the 2006 federal election.

Brent Neil ran for the Green Party, Stéphane Bakhos for the Pirate Party, and Polyvios Tsakanikas for the Marxist-Leninist Party.

About the Riding

Laval—Les Îles had been a Liberal stronghold since its creation in 2003, held by Raymonde Folco in each election since its creation. Folco, a five-term Liberal MP who had also represented the predecessor riding of Laval-Ouest, announced her retirement ahead of the 2011 election. The riding sits on the western tip of Laval, a suburban island city of roughly 400,000 people north of Montreal. The neighbourhoods range from the affluent lakefront community of Laval-sur-le-Lac — one of Quebec’s wealthiest enclaves — to the more middle-class residential areas of Laval-Ouest and Fabreville.

The riding was notable for its significant immigrant population, with roughly one-third of residents born outside Canada. The largest communities of origin included Lebanon, Greece, and Syria, and the riding had one of the highest proportions of Christian Orthodox residents in Canada. Arabic and Armenian were among the most commonly spoken non-official languages. This diversity made the riding a microcosm of suburban Montreal’s demographic transformation.

Economically, the riding was predominantly residential and suburban in character, with residents commuting to Montreal and other parts of Laval for employment. Local employers included retail and service businesses along the Autoroute 13 and Autoroute 440 corridors, as well as light industrial operations in the Sainte-Dorothée sector. Housing development was a major local concern, as Laval continued to experience rapid suburban growth throughout the 2000s.