Vimy

The riding of Vimy covers the southwestern quadrant of the island city of Laval, Quebec's third-largest municipality, situated between Montreal to the south and the northern suburbs across the Rivière des Mille Îles. Created during the 2012 redistribution, the district takes in the neighbourhoods of Chomedey and Laval-des-Rapides.

Candidates

Annie Koutrakis (Liberal) — A trilingual investment professional who spent 30 years in the financial services industry, rising to the position of vice-president and branch manager at a major brokerage firm. Before entering politics, Koutrakis served as president, CEO, and chair of the board of the Hellenic Community of Greater Montreal — the first woman to hold that role in the organization's 113-year history. She resigned the position in September 2019 to seek the Liberal nomination in Vimy.

Claire-Emmanuelle Beaulieu (Bloc Québécois) — A management information advisor at Hydro-Québec with over 25 years of experience at the Crown corporation. Beaulieu made green technologies and public transit her central campaign priorities in the riding.

Rima El-Helou (Conservative) — An immigration consultant and business owner who was a founding member of the Cercle Maronite, a Montreal-based non-profit that assists newcomers and women in vulnerable situations. El-Helou made her first foray into electoral politics as the Conservative candidate in Vimy.

Vassif Aliev (NDP) — The New Democratic Party's candidate in the riding.

Faiza R'Guiba (Green Party) and Suzanne Brunelle (People's Party) also contested the seat.

About the Riding

Vimy's character was shaped by successive waves of immigration that made it one of the most ethnically diverse ridings in Quebec. Chomedey, in particular, had been Laval's most multicultural neighbourhood since the 1960s, home to large Greek, Lebanese, Armenian, Haitian, Italian, Moroccan, and Algerian communities. The Greek community anchored a network of Hellenic churches, cultural centres, and businesses along Chomedey's commercial corridors. The riding's urban fabric mixed postwar bungalows and mid-rise apartment buildings with newer condominium developments along major boulevards. Laval-des-Rapides, closer to the bridges linking the island to Montreal, had a denser, more transit-oriented profile, benefiting from the orange metro line's extension to stations at Montmorency and Cartier in 2007. Local concerns heading into the 2019 election included aging infrastructure in older residential sectors, the integration of newcomers, and the adequacy of health-care services for a growing and diversifying population. The contest to replace outgoing Liberal MP Eva Nassif drew particular attention, as Koutrakis's deep roots in the Hellenic community and her financial-sector credentials positioned her as a strong contender in a riding where ethnic community networks played a significant role in political organization.