Compton—Stanstead

Nestled in Quebec's Eastern Townships along the American border southeast of Sherbrooke, Compton—Stanstead covers roughly 4,500 square kilometres of Appalachian hill country, dairy pastures, and lakeside communities. The riding takes in the regional county municipalities of Coaticook and Le Haut-Saint-François, the eastern portion of Memphrémagog, and sections of Le Val-Saint-François and the city of Sherbrooke, including the historically anglophone neighbourhood of Lennoxville. Principal towns include Coaticook, Stanstead, North Hatley, Ayer's Cliff, and Waterville, and the U.S. border forms the riding's southern and eastern edge.

Candidates

Marie-Claude Bibeau (Liberal) — Raised in Sherbrooke, Bibeau earned a bachelor's degree in economics and a graduate diploma in environmental management from the Université de Sherbrooke. She spent years with the Canadian International Development Agency, posted to Ottawa, Montreal, Morocco, and Benin, before returning to the Eastern Townships to operate a tourism business for fifteen years. First elected in 2015, she served as Minister of International Development and La Francophonie before being appointed Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food in March 2019 — the first woman to hold that portfolio in Canadian history.

David Benoît (Bloc Québécois) — A scenographer from Montreal who had moved to Sherbrooke, Benoît had been politically engaged since his teens, involved in student associations at Cégep Marie-Victorin and serving as vice-president of the Bloc Québécois Youth Forum. He played a role in the party's refoundation process before winning the local nomination.

Jessy Mc Neil (Conservative) — Mc Neil represented the Conservative Party of Canada in the riding.

Naomie Mathieu Chauvette (NDP) — Mathieu Chauvette was the New Democratic Party candidate.

Jean Rousseau (Green Party) — A former NDP member of Parliament for this riding from 2011 to 2015, Rousseau studied administration at the Cégep de Sherbrooke and earned a bachelor's degree in industrial relations from Université Laval. After his defeat in 2015, he joined the Green Party in 2016, citing unaddressed environmental concerns during his time in the NDP caucus, and served as the party's agriculture critic for eastern Canada.

Paul Reed ran for the People's Party of Canada and Jonathan Therrien ran for the Rhinoceros Party.

About the Riding

The Eastern Townships landscape is shaped by dairy farming, maple sugar production, and a growing agritourism and culinary sector that draws visitors from Montreal and beyond. Vineyards, microbreweries, and farm-to-table restaurants have proliferated across the region. Coaticook is known for the Gorge de Coaticook and the Foresta Lumina night walk, a popular attraction drawing tens of thousands each season. The village of Compton has established itself as a destination for organic farming and gastronomic festivals. The riding retains traces of its Loyalist-era anglophone roots — roughly thirteen percent of residents speak English as a mother tongue — visible in place names like North Hatley and in institutions such as Bishop's University in Lennoxville. At Stanstead, the international boundary runs through the community, and the Haskell Free Library and Opera House famously straddles the Canada–United States line. Federal dairy supply management was a critical issue for the riding's many small producers, alongside rural broadband access, cross-border trade through the Autoroute 55 corridor, and support for seasonal agricultural and tourism workers.