La Prairie

Situated on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River opposite Montreal, La Prairie encompasses the municipalities of Candiac, Delson, La Prairie, Saint-Constant, Saint-Mathieu, and Saint-Philippe. Created through the 2012 redistribution from parts of Châteauguay—Saint-Constant and Brossard—La Prairie, this was a new riding contesting its first federal election in 2015. The area is largely suburban and francophone, with many residents commuting across the river to Montreal for work.

Candidates

Jean-Claude Poissant (Liberal) — A dairy and grain farmer from Saint-Philippe, Poissant also served as a municipal councillor in his community. His agricultural background gave him direct familiarity with the supply management debates that mattered to producers across the Monteregie region.

Christian Picard (Bloc Québécois) — Picard ran a business strategy consulting firm and had previously chaired the Parti Québécois’s national youth committee. He had also served as chief of staff in the provincial Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment, Parks and Wildlife during the Parti Québécois’s 2012–2014 minority government.

Pierre Chicoine (NDP) — Chicoine was the brother of Sylvain Chicoine, who had won the neighbouring Châteauguay—Saint-Constant riding for the NDP in 2011. The pair hoped to become the first siblings to sit together in the House of Commons since 1988.

Yves Perras (Conservative) — Perras stood as the Conservative candidate in this south-shore riding.

Joanne Tomas (Green Party) — Tomas represented the Green Party in the riding’s inaugural contest.

About the Riding

With close to 84 percent of residents identifying French as their mother tongue, La Prairie is a solidly francophone suburban belt that had been Bloc Québécois territory for most of its existence under previous boundary configurations. Rapid residential growth in Candiac and Saint-Constant through the 2000s and early 2010s transformed former farmland into subdivisions, though agriculture—particularly dairy farming—remained an important part of the local economy in Saint-Philippe and surrounding areas. Commuters relied heavily on the A-15 and A-30 highways and on the Agence métropolitaine de transport’s commuter rail service, and traffic congestion on the Champlain Bridge corridor was a persistent irritant. The protection of supply management for dairy and poultry producers, infrastructure investment for the new Champlain Bridge project, and local environmental concerns around urban sprawl onto agricultural land were among the issues that shaped the 2015 campaign.