Bécancour—Nicolet—Saurel

Bécancour—Nicolet—Saurel stretches along the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, directly opposite Trois-Rivières, straddling the Quebec administrative regions of Centre-du-Québec and Montérégie. The riding takes its name from three of its principal communities—the city of Bécancour, the town of Nicolet, and the city of Sorel-Tracy. The landscape is overwhelmingly flat and agriculturally productive, nourished by several major tributaries—the Richelieu, Yamaska, Saint-François, Nicolet, and Bécancour rivers—that empty into the Saint Lawrence across the riding's territory. A significant portion of the constituency falls within the Lac-Saint-Pierre Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO-designated site encompassing over one hundred islands and some of the largest wetland systems along the Saint Lawrence. The population is almost entirely francophone, with over 97% reporting French as a mother tongue.

Candidates

Louis Plamondon (Bloc Québécois) — First elected to Parliament in 1984 as a Progressive Conservative, Plamondon left the party following the collapse of the Meech Lake Accord in 1990 and became a founding member of the Bloc Québécois. By 2021, he was the longest-continuously-serving member of the House of Commons and the Dean of the House, having won twelve consecutive federal elections in the riding under its various names.

Nathalie Rochefort (Liberal) — A former Liberal member of Quebec's National Assembly for the riding of Mercier, Rochefort relocated to the region after spending thirty years in Montreal, settling near Pierreville. She served as director general of the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie du Cœur-du-Québec and had also run as the Liberal candidate in the riding in 2019.

Yanick Caisse (Conservative) — A real estate agent from the region, Caisse began his career at a Coca-Cola bottling plant founded by his great-grandfather in 1904, working there in various capacities until its closure in 1995. He positioned himself as a voice for taxpayers during the campaign.

Catherine Gauvin (NDP) — A nurse, computer scientist, and health-sector manager with fourteen years of experience, Gauvin also chaired the board of the Éconord Solidarity Cooperative, an environmental organization based in Montréal-Nord. She had been involved with the NDP for approximately a decade prior to her candidacy.

Eric Pettersen (PPC) — Pettersen carried the People's Party of Canada banner in the riding.

David Turcotte (Green) — Turcotte represented the Green Party of Canada in the riding.

About the Riding

Bécancour—Nicolet—Saurel is a largely rural riding defined by its relationship to the Saint Lawrence and its tributaries. Agriculture, particularly dairy and grain farming, has long been central to the regional economy, with the fertile floodplains providing some of the most productive farmland in Quebec. The industrial city of Sorel-Tracy, at the eastern end of the riding where the Richelieu meets the Saint Lawrence, has historically served as a manufacturing hub, with metallurgy and heavy industry playing important economic roles.

The Lac-Saint-Pierre Biosphere Reserve is one of the riding's most distinctive features. The archipelago—the largest on the Saint Lawrence—supports critical fish spawning habitat and migratory bird staging grounds. Environmental stewardship and the balance between agricultural runoff and wetland preservation have been recurring local concerns.

The constituency has been a stronghold for the Bloc Québécois since Louis Plamondon helped found the party in 1990, and the riding's overwhelmingly francophone, sovereigntist-leaning character has made it one of the most reliably Bloc-held seats in Quebec. Plamondon's personal longevity as an MP—spanning nearly four decades by 2021—gave the riding an outsized parliamentary profile relative to its population of roughly 96,000.