Mégantic—L’Érable

Mégantic—L’Érable is a sprawling rural riding covering 5,912 square kilometres across three Quebec administrative regions — Centre-du-Québec, Chaudière-Appalaches, and Estrie. It encompasses the regional county municipalities of Les Appalaches, L’Érable, and Le Granit, with its principal communities being Thetford Mines (population 26,000), Plessisville, and Lac-Mégantic. The riding had an overall population of roughly 87,000 and a land area that makes it one of the larger ridings in southern Quebec. The landscape is Appalachian hill country — forests, farmland, and former mining territory.

Candidates

Luc Berthold (Conservative) — Born in Sherbrooke in 1966, Berthold moved to Thetford Mines in 1986. He began his career in communications as a radio host and journalist at station CKLD before becoming editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper Le Courrier Frontenac. He later worked as a political assistant and communications advisor, and in 2003 served as press officer for the Quebec Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism. He entered municipal politics in 2006 as mayor of Thetford Mines and served as president of the Economic Development Corporation of the Thetford region. First elected federally in 2015, he was re-elected in 2019 and sought a third mandate in 2021.

Éric Labonté (Bloc Québécois) — A 51-year-old father of two from Thetford Mines, Labonté worked as an auxiliary nurse for roughly fifteen years and owned a centralized vacuum cleaner manufacturing facility in Saint-Joseph-de-Coleraine. Originally from Disraeli, he campaigned on cellular coverage and high-speed internet accessibility, watershed management, and labour shortages.

Adam Lukofsky (Liberal) — A 40-year-old originally from Valcourt in the Eastern Townships, Lukofsky studied administration, political science, and civil law in Ottawa. He had worked for federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra and federal Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages Mélanie Joly before running.

Mathieu Boisvert (NDP) — Boisvert represented the New Democratic Party in Mégantic—L’Érable.

Nicole Charette (Green) — Charette carried the Green Party banner in the riding.

About the Riding

Thetford Mines was long known as the asbestos capital of Canada, but the industry’s final mine closed in 2012, forcing a painful economic transition. By 2021 the city had diversified into manufacturing, though the legacy of asbestos — both environmental and economic — still shaped local identity. Labour shortages across the manufacturing, agricultural, and health care sectors were acute, with employers competing for a shrinking workforce in a region experiencing population decline.

Lac-Mégantic, at the riding’s southern end, was still recovering from the catastrophic 2013 rail disaster that killed 47 people and levelled much of the town’s core. By 2021, the federal government had committed $133 million — split 60-40 with the province — to build a 12.5-kilometre rail bypass that would reroute freight trains away from downtown. Land acquisition had begun and construction was expected to start in spring 2022. The bypass project was a defining local issue, symbolizing both the community’s resilience and its frustration with the pace of federal action.

Agriculture — dairy farming, maple syrup production, and cash crops — remains the economic backbone of the L’Érable and Le Granit areas. Rural broadband and cellular coverage gaps were a persistent grievance, amplified by the pandemic’s shift to remote work and online services.