La Pointe-de-l'Île

Spanning the eastern tip of the Island of Montreal, La Pointe-de-l'Île takes in the city of Montréal-Est, the neighbourhood of Pointe-aux-Trembles, and portions of Longue-Pointe and Mercier-Est. The riding stretches along the St. Lawrence River and has long been considered among the most reliably sovereigntist seats on the island. Its francophone working-class communities had delivered comfortable margins for the Bloc Québécois before the NDP wave of 2011 swept the seat away.

Candidates

Mario Beaulieu (Bloc Québécois) — Born in Sherbrooke, Beaulieu moved to Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue at age four. He served as president of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste of Montreal from 2009 to 2014 and was a spokesperson for the Mouvement Québec français coalition. He won the Bloc Québécois leadership in June 2014 but stepped aside in June 2015 to make way for the return of Gilles Duceppe, while remaining party president.

Marie-Chantale Simard (Liberal) — A molecular biologist and pharmaceutical researcher, Simard held a doctorate in experimental medicine from McGill University. She had worked as a medical scientific liaison agent for CSL Behring Canada and published research on HIV, earning recognition from the American Society for Microbiology.

Ève Péclet (NDP) — Elected in the 2011 orange wave at just 22 years old, Péclet was a law graduate of the Université de Montréal and sat on the House of Commons committees for human rights, foreign affairs, and justice during her first term. She sought re-election as the riding's incumbent.

Guy Morissette (Conservative) — Morissette carried the Conservative banner in this francophone eastern Montreal riding.

David J. Cox (Green Party) — Cox ran for the Green Party, offering voters an environmentalist alternative in a contest dominated by the sovereigntist-federalist divide.

About the Riding

La Pointe-de-l'Île is an urban, predominantly francophone district whose population of roughly 106,000 includes significant communities speaking Spanish, Creole, and Arabic. The industrial city of Montréal-Est, home to petrochemical facilities and oil refineries along the eastern waterfront, has long anchored the local economy, though plant closures and business departures had raised concerns about economic stagnation in the years leading up to 2015. The riding's neighbourhoods sit at the end of the metro’s green line, and commuter transit connections to the rest of the island remained an ongoing concern. Environmental issues tied to the industrial legacy of the area—soil contamination, air quality near refinery operations—featured in local debates, as did employment insurance reform and the cost of living for the riding’s many working families.