Beauce

Beauce occupies the Chaudière River valley in the Chaudière-Appalaches region south of Quebec City, taking in the towns of Saint-Georges, Sainte-Marie, Beauceville, and Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce across roughly 4,100 square kilometres of rolling countryside. The region is overwhelmingly francophone and has earned a reputation as one of Quebec's most entrepreneurial territories, home to a concentration of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises that is remarkable for its population of about 111,000.

Candidates

Richard Lehoux (Conservative) — A fourth-generation dairy farmer from Saint-Elzéar, Lehoux served as mayor of his municipality from 1998 to 2017, continuing a family tradition that stretched back to his great-grandfather's tenure as mayor from 1898 to 1902. He was reeve of the Nouvelle-Beauce Regional County Municipality from 2000 to 2017 and served as president of the Fédération québécoise des municipalités from 2014 to 2017 before returning to his dairy farm.

Maxime Bernier (People's Party) — The founder and leader of the People's Party of Canada, Bernier held a Bachelor of Commerce from UQAM and a law degree from the University of Ottawa. Before politics, he worked at McCarthy Tétrault, the Quebec Securities Commission, the National Bank of Canada, and Standard Life, and later served as executive vice-president of the Montreal Economic Institute. He represented Beauce as a Conservative MP from 2006 to 2018, holding cabinet posts as Minister of Industry and Minister of Foreign Affairs under Stephen Harper. He narrowly lost the 2017 Conservative leadership to Andrew Scheer and left the party in August 2018 to found the PPC.

Guillaume Rodrigue (Bloc Québécois) — A resident of Saint-Prosper, Rodrigue had served eight years as a municipal councillor and worked as coordinator of the Maison des jeunes l'Olivier des Etchemins. He was also an administrator of the Saint-Prosper Exhibition committee.

Adam Veilleux (Liberal) — Originally from Saint-Georges, Veilleux was president of Placements Veilleux Inc., a real estate development company. He had been involved in community fundraising for the Maison Catherine de Longpré and was making his second consecutive run as the Liberal candidate in the riding.

François Jacques-Côté (NDP) — Jacques-Côté ran for the NDP.

Josiane Fortin (Green Party) — Fortin represented the Green Party.

A second candidate also named Maxime Bernier ran for the Parti Rhinocéros, an incident that drew national media attention.

About the Riding

The Beauce's entrepreneurial character has produced major companies including the Canam Group, a steel construction firm headquartered in Saint-Georges, and Pomerleau, a national construction company. Hundreds of smaller firms in furniture, metalworking, food processing, and clothing manufacturing form the backbone of the regional economy. Dairy farming and maple syrup production remain significant agricultural activities; the area accounts for a substantial share of Quebec's maple output. Supply management in the dairy sector was an especially sensitive campaign issue given both the riding's farming roots and Bernier's long-standing pledge to dismantle the system. The 2019 contest was nationally significant as the first test of the PPC in its founder's home riding, pitting Bernier against Conservative newcomer Lehoux for the loyalties of the traditionally right-leaning electorate.