Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia

This sprawling riding along Quebec's lower St. Lawrence south shore was created by the 2012 redistribution, combining territory from the former Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia and Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine ridings. It stretches from the Gaspé Peninsula's northern coast through the Matapédia Valley to the Baie des Chaleurs, encompassing the towns of Matane, Mont-Joli, Amqui, and Carleton-sur-Mer. The region's economy depends on seafood processing, forestry, wind energy, and agriculture.

Candidates

Rémi Massé (Liberal) — Massé served as Director General of the Cégep de Matane and had spent 16 years as a manager and executive in various federal government departments in Ottawa and Matane before entering politics. He campaigned in a region that had voted Bloc Québécois for a quarter-century, making a Liberal victory there a long shot at the campaign's outset.

Kédina Fleury-Samson (Bloc Québécois) — Based in Mont-Joli, Fleury-Samson was a young candidate running for the Bloc. Her 2015 campaign drew media attention over a controversy about her participation in a spiritual event, which she defended as related to personal development.

Joël Charest (NDP) — A former assistant to NDP MP Guy Caron, Charest was from the town of Price. He won the party's local nomination over another contender and ran a competitive campaign.

Jean-François Fortin (Forces et Démocratie) — Fortin had won the predecessor riding in 2011 as a Bloc Québécois candidate—the only non-incumbent Bloc MP elected that year. He left the Bloc in August 2014 after denouncing new leader Mario Beaulieu's direction for the party, and co-founded the Forces et Démocratie party in October 2014 with fellow MP Jean-François Larose, aiming to give a stronger federal voice to Quebec's regions. He ran under the new party's banner in 2015.

André Savoie (Conservative) — Savoie was the Conservative candidate in the riding.

About the Riding

The lower St. Lawrence and northern Gaspésie have long grappled with economic challenges tied to the decline of traditional resource industries. Matane, the riding's largest commercial centre, developed a diversified economy including pork and seafood processing, shipbuilding, and wind turbine manufacturing. The Matapédia Valley is known for its salmon rivers and forestry operations, while the Baie des Chaleurs coast sustains fishing and tourism. Wind energy emerged as a growth sector, with several large wind farms installed across the region during the 2010s. Seasonal employment and outmigration of young people remained chronic concerns, and candidates debated how federal policy could slow population decline and diversify the local economy. The splitting of the riding's political loyalties between the Liberals, Bloc, NDP, and the new Forces et Démocratie party made for one of the more fragmented contests in Quebec.