Berthier—Maskinongé

Berthier—Maskinongé follows the north bank of the Saint Lawrence River between the outer reaches of greater Montreal and the city of Trois-Rivières, covering the Lanaudière and Mauricie administrative regions. The riding encompasses the regional county municipalities of D'Autray and Maskinongé, with principal communities including Berthierville, Louiseville, Lavaltrie, and Saint-Félix-de-Valois. Flat farmland along the Saint Lawrence gives way to increasingly forested terrain in the northern reaches of the riding, and the population is almost entirely francophone.

Candidates

Yves Perron (Bloc Québécois) — A history and economics teacher at École secondaire de l'Érablière in Saint-Félix-de-Valois with twenty-five years of classroom experience, Perron holds a bachelor's degree in economic sciences with a minor in communication and political science. A longtime sovereignty activist, he had previously run as the Bloc candidate in the riding in 2015 and served as president of the Bloc Québécois.

Ruth Ellen Brosseau (NDP) — The incumbent MP, Brosseau was famously elected in 2011 as a paper candidate during the NDP's Quebec sweep, winning the riding despite being on vacation during much of the campaign. In the years that followed, she learned French, settled in the riding, and built a strong local reputation through constituency work. She served as NDP House Leader and the party's agriculture critic, championing compensation for homeowners affected by the pyrrhotite foundation crisis.

Christine Poirier (Liberal) — A nurse, writer, and entrepreneur from the Mauricie region, Poirier entered politics through her experience running a small business.

Josée Bélanger (Conservative) — A philosophy teacher at Collège Laflèche in Trois-Rivières, Bélanger held bachelor's and master's degrees in philosophy from Université Laval. She had served in the Naval Reserve from 1988 to 1996 before entering academia and approached the Conservative Party in 2017 following Andrew Scheer's leadership victory.

Éric Laferrière (Green Party) — Laferrière represented the Green Party of Canada.

Luc Massé ran for the People's Party of Canada, Alain Bélanger stood as an independent, Martin Acetaria Caesar Jubinville represented the Rhinoceros Party, and Danny Légaré ran for the Radical Marijuana Party.

About the Riding

Agriculture anchors the economy of Berthier—Maskinongé. The Saint Lawrence floodplains support dairy farming, grain crops, and market gardening. Berthierville is the hometown of racing legend Gilles Villeneuve, and a museum dedicated to his career attracts visitors to the community.

The pyrrhotite contamination crisis, which had damaged thousands of home foundations across the Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec regions since the early 2000s, remained an urgent local issue. Affected homeowners faced repair costs that could exceed $200,000, and demands for federal financial assistance featured prominently in the campaign. Brosseau's advocacy on the pyrrhotite file during her time in office had earned her cross-partisan respect. The riding's large dairy farming population also closely watched the terms of the new United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement and its implications for supply management. The 2019 contest between Perron and Brosseau was one of the most closely watched in Quebec, with the outcome hinging on whether the Bloc's province-wide resurgence could overcome the NDP incumbent's personal popularity.