Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot

Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot is a riding in the Montérégie region of Quebec, centred on the city of Saint-Hyacinthe, located approximately 60 kilometres east of Montreal along the Yamaska River. The riding encompasses the city and surrounding rural municipalities in the Les Maskoutains regional county municipality.

Candidates

Marie-Claude Morin (NDP) — Born in Trois-Rivières in 1985, Morin was a social work student at the Université du Québec à Montréal at the time of the election. She was among several young NDP candidates across Quebec who ran modest campaigns as part of the party's broader slate in the province.

Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac (Bloc Québécois) — The incumbent MP, who had taken office through a September 2007 by-election after predecessor Yvan Loubier left to run provincially for the Parti Québécois. Born in 1972, Thaï Thi Lac was re-elected in 2008. In Parliament, she served as the Bloc's human rights critic and was active on the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, reflecting the riding's agricultural economy.

Jean-Guy Dagenais (Conservative) — A career law enforcement officer who had served with the Sûreté du Québec for nearly forty years at the time of the election. Dagenais brought a public safety background to his candidacy in the riding.

Denis Vallée (Liberal) — The Liberal Party candidate in the riding.

Johany Beaudoin-Bussières (Green Party) — The Green Party candidate in the riding.

About the Riding

Saint-Hyacinthe, with a population of approximately 53,000 in 2011, has earned the designation of Canada's agricultural technopolis. The city and surrounding Les Maskoutains RCM form Quebec's leading hub for dairy and pork production, with over 1,100 agricultural enterprises in the region. The agri-food industry accounts for a dominant share of local manufacturing investment and employment. Saint-Hyacinthe is home to several nationally significant agricultural research institutions, including a federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research and development centre, the Institut de technologie agroalimentaire, and the Institut de recherche et développement en agro-environnement. The city also hosts the headquarters of the Centre d'insémination artificielle du Québec. Beyond agriculture, the Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe and the Centre hospitalier Honoré-Mercier are major local employers and institutions. The riding has historically been associated with the Bloc Québécois, which held the seat in every election from 1993 to 2008. The population is overwhelmingly francophone. The flat, fertile plains of the Maskoutains region make it some of the most productive agricultural land in Quebec, with a landscape dominated by dairy farms, crop fields, and agri-food processing facilities stretching outward from the urban core of Saint-Hyacinthe.