Beauséjour

Beauséjour stretches across southeastern New Brunswick, covering most of Westmorland County east of Moncton and a large swath of Kent County along the Northumberland Strait. The riding takes in the coastal towns of Shediac, Cap-Pelé, Bouctouche, and Richibucto, the university town of Sackville near the Nova Scotia border, the community of Memramcook, and parts of the fast-growing city of Dieppe. Several First Nations reserves, including Bouctouche, Richibucto, Indian Island, and Fort Folly, fall within its boundaries. Approximately 61 percent of residents speak French as their mother tongue, giving the riding a predominantly Acadian character, though the southern Tantramar area around Sackville is largely anglophone.

Candidates

Dominic LeBlanc (Liberal) is the incumbent, first elected in 2000 and seeking a ninth consecutive term in 2025. The son of former Governor General Roméo LeBlanc, he studied at the University of Toronto, earned a law degree from the University of New Brunswick, and completed a master’s at Harvard Law School. Before entering Parliament, he practised law in Shediac and Moncton and served as a special advisor to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. He has held senior cabinet portfolios including Fisheries and Oceans, Intergovernmental Affairs, Public Safety, and briefly Finance following Chrystia Freeland’s resignation in December 2024.

Nathalie Vautour (Conservative) grew up in the St-Anselme area of Memramcook and holds a degree from the Université de Moncton. A business owner and mother of three, she announced her candidacy in 2023, citing affordability and economic concerns.

Alex Gagné (NDP) is a political science graduate of St. Thomas University with more than a decade of progressive organizing and workers’ rights advocacy in New Brunswick. He previously ran for the NDP in the 2024 provincial election and in a 2023 by-election.

Josh Shaddick (Green Party) hails from Miramichi and works as a regional manager for a drug and alcohol testing company. He ran as a Green candidate provincially in Miramichi East during the 2024 New Brunswick election.

Eddie Cornell (People’s Party) and Donna Allen (Libertarian) also stood as candidates.

About the Riding

Beauséjour’s economy blends seafood, tourism, agriculture, and post-secondary education. Shediac, self-styled as the Lobster Capital of the World, anchors a coastal tourism corridor that draws tens of thousands of visitors to its warm Northumberland Strait beaches each summer. The lobster and crab fishery sustains processing plants and fishing families throughout Kent County. Mount Allison University in Sackville and satellite operations of the Université de Moncton provide institutional employment, while dairy, potato, and mixed farming remain significant across the rural interior.

The riding straddles a notable cultural divide: the northern and coastal sections are overwhelmingly Acadian French, while the Sackville–Tantramar area is predominantly anglophone with close ties to Nova Scotia. Population growth in Dieppe’s suburban corridors has been among the fastest in Atlantic Canada, fueled by immigration and interprovincial migration.

US tariff threats in 2025 placed the riding’s seafood export sector under direct pressure, with lobster and crab harvesters uncertain about market access. Housing affordability worsened as Greater Moncton’s population surged, pushing rents and property prices sharply upward in the Dieppe and Shediac corridors. The riding’s large seasonal workforce kept employment-insurance reform on the agenda, while physician shortages and health-care access in rural clinics remained persistent concerns for an aging population.