Papineau

One of the smallest federal ridings in Canada by area at just nine square kilometres, Papineau was a densely populated urban constituency in north-central Montreal encompassing the neighbourhoods of Villeray and Park Extension, as well as the southern portion of Saint-Michel, all within the borough of Villeray—Saint-Michel—Parc-Extension. With a population exceeding 110,000, it was among the most linguistically diverse ridings in the country.

Candidates

Justin Trudeau (Liberal) — The eldest son of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Justin Trudeau held a Bachelor of Arts in English from McGill University and a Bachelor of Education from the University of British Columbia. He taught French, drama, English, social studies, and math at West Point Grey Academy and Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in Vancouver from 1999 to 2002. From 2002 to 2006 he served as chair of Katimavik, a national youth service organization, and in 2006 he became chair of the Liberal Party's Task Force on Youth Renewal. He deliberately chose to run in the competitive riding of Papineau rather than a safer Liberal seat, and in 2008 he narrowly defeated the Bloc Québécois incumbent Vivian Barbot to win his first term in Parliament.

Marcos Radhames Tejada (NDP) — A technician by occupation, Tejada ran as the NDP candidate in Papineau and benefited from the party's province-wide surge in Quebec.

Vivian Barbot (Bloc Québécois) — Born in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Barbot earned a bachelor's degree in literature from the Université du Québec à Montréal and a teaching certificate from the Université de Sherbrooke, and had a career as a secondary school teacher. She led the Fédération des femmes du Québec from 2001 to 2003 and was active in women's rights and trade union movements. In 2006 she was elected as the Bloc MP for Papineau, defeating Liberal cabinet minister Pierre Pettigrew, but lost the seat to Trudeau in 2008. She was seeking to reclaim the riding in 2011.

Shama Chopra (Conservative) — Chopra ran as the Conservative candidate in the riding.

Danny Polifroni ran for the Green Party, Peter Macrisopoulos for the Marxist-Leninist Party, and Joseph Young as an independent.

About the Riding

Papineau's extraordinary diversity was its defining characteristic. Park Extension, a compact neighbourhood of roughly 34,000 people squeezed into just 1.6 square kilometres, was one of Montreal's principal immigrant reception areas, with large communities tracing their origins to South Asia, Greece, Haiti, North Africa, and Latin America. Villeray, to the east, was a traditionally francophone working-class neighbourhood that had become increasingly diverse. The Saint-Michel sector added further layers of immigration, including significant Haitian and Latin American populations.

About 39 percent of the riding's residents were immigrants, and more than half the population identified as visible minorities. French was the mother tongue of roughly half the residents, but the riding's linguistic landscape included substantial Spanish, Arabic, Greek, Italian, Vietnamese, Creole, and Punjabi-speaking communities. The commercial strips along Jean-Talon Street and Jarry Street reflected this diversity.

The riding's economy was driven by small business, retail, and the service sector, with residents also commuting to employment across the Montreal metropolitan area. Federal issues of particular concern included immigration and settlement services, affordable housing in a densely populated area, poverty reduction, and support for the cultural communities that gave the riding its distinct character. The 2011 campaign marked Trudeau's bid to solidify his hold on a riding he had won narrowly in 2008, in a year when the Liberal Party was struggling across Quebec and the rest of Canada.