Laurier—Sainte-Marie

At the heart of Montreal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie encompasses much of the Plateau-Mont-Royal and extends south through parts of Ville-Marie to the St. Lawrence River, including Île Sainte-Hélène and Île Notre-Dame. The riding is named for Laurier Avenue, honouring Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, and the former parish of Sainte-Marie in what is now known as Centre-Sud. It holds a singular place in Canadian political history as the riding where Gilles Duceppe won a 1990 by-election running with the support of the nascent sovereigntist movement that became the Bloc Québécois.

Candidates

Steven Guilbeault (Liberal) — One of Quebec's most prominent environmentalists, Guilbeault co-founded Équiterre in 1993 and served as its senior director until November 2018. He had previously served as Quebec bureau chief for Greenpeace from 2000 to 2007. His decision to run for the Liberals generated both excitement and criticism, given his longstanding opposition to pipeline projects and the party's purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline.

Nimâ Machouf (NDP) — An epidemiologist holding a doctorate in public health from the Université de Montréal, Machouf specialized in international health and infectious disease, particularly HIV/AIDS research. She taught at the Université de Montréal's school of public health and had been elected as a municipal councillor under the Projet Montréal banner in 2009, though she ceded her seat to party leader Richard Bergeron.

Michel Duchesne (Bloc Québécois) — An author and director with degrees in literature and cinema from the Université de Montréal and Concordia University, Duchesne had produced sociocultural programming for Radio-Canada, TVA, and MusiquePlus. He had been inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Ligue nationale d'improvisation as a winning coach and had previously run in a 2018 by-election in Outremont.

Jamil Azzaoui (Green Party) — Azzaoui represented the Green Party in a riding where environmental politics featured prominently in a multi-candidate field.

Lise des Greniers (Conservative) — A former two-term municipal councillor in Granby who was working as a painter at the time of the election, des Greniers had served on several Conservative campaign teams and positioned herself as a socially progressive voice within the party.

Christine Bui (People's Party), Archie Morals (Parti Rhinocéros Party), Serge Lachapelle (ML), Adrien Welsh (Communist), and Dimitri Mourkes (Independent) also sought election.

About the Riding

Laurier—Sainte-Marie is home to roughly 112,000 residents in one of Montreal's most culturally vibrant districts. The Plateau-Mont-Royal's tree-lined streets, independent bookshops, and café culture define the riding's northern half, while the areas south of Sherbrooke Street retain a grittier, more working-class character. Nearly a quarter of residents were born outside Canada, and the riding hosts a dense concentration of artists, musicians, and cultural workers alongside a significant student population. By 2019, rising rents and the conversion of rental housing to condominiums had intensified the affordable housing crisis, pushing longtime residents out of neighbourhoods they had inhabited for decades. Arts and culture funding, housing affordability, immigration policy, and environmental protection were the dominant campaign themes in a riding where progressive politics and sovereigntist sentiment had long coexisted.