Marc-Aurele-Fortin

Marc-Aurele-Fortin occupies the northern reaches of the city of Laval, Quebec's third-largest municipality, situated on Ile Jesus between the Riviere des Mille Iles and the Riviere des Prairies. The riding takes in the neighbourhoods of Sainte-Rose, Auteuil, the eastern portion of Fabreville, and the western edge of Vimont. Named for the renowned Quebec landscape painter, the constituency was reshaped during the 2012 redistribution and sits entirely within Laval's municipal boundaries.

Candidates

Yves Robillard (Liberal) — Born in 1942, Robillard spent four decades as a high school teacher before entering public life. He served as chief of staff to the Speaker of Quebec's National Assembly and subsequently as private secretary to the Leader of the Official Opposition. A former commander with the Canadian Army Reserves and chief of personnel with the Air Cadets at CFB Bagotville, he was also a founding member of the Sainte-Rose Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Vimont-Auteuil Optimist Club. First elected to the House of Commons in 2015, he sat on the Standing Committee on National Defence.

Lizabel Nitoi (Bloc Quebecois) — Romanian-born, Nitoi holds degrees in English and Romanian literature, philology, and history. She served as an advisor in the Quebec Ministry of Immigration under Premier Pauline Marois and was a founding member of the Mouvement Lanaudiere francais. She previously chaired the Bloc Quebecois's diversity committee.

Sonia Baudelot (Conservative) — A Laval native, Baudelot holds a diploma in human sciences with a concentration in law. She spent over twenty years in the aviation industry as a flight director for a major airline and served as a union vice-president for flight crew. In 2017, she founded the municipal party Avenir Laval.

Ali Faour (NDP) — Faour holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from UQAM and had worked in the private sector for over twenty-five years. A community activist since his teenage years, he had previously run as a Quebec solidaire candidate in the 2014 provincial election in the riding of Robert-Baldwin.

Bao Tran Le (Green Party), Emilio Migliozzi (People's Party), and Elias Progakis (Independent) also contested the riding.

About the Riding

The Sainte-Rose neighbourhood, one of the oldest communities on Ile Jesus, retains a historic village core along the Riviere des Mille Iles, while Auteuil and eastern Fabreville are characterized by newer residential subdivisions that expanded rapidly from the 1970s onward. Autoroute 440 and Autoroute 13 traverse the riding, connecting its residential areas to central Laval and Montreal's employment centres.

Transportation infrastructure was a persistent concern for residents. Laval's population growth and heavy commuter traffic to and from Montreal placed considerable pressure on road networks and public transit services. Improved bus connections and commuter rail service to employment hubs in central Laval and downtown Montreal were topics of ongoing discussion. The riding's population skewed somewhat older than the city average, and issues relating to seniors' services — including access to family physicians, long-term care, and home care — featured prominently in local debates. Laval's broader transformation from a collection of rural and semi-rural municipalities into one of Quebec's fastest-growing urban centres continued to shape the riding's character.