Joliette—Manawan

Joliette—Manawan is a federal riding in Quebec's Lanaudière region, northeast of Montreal. Renamed from Joliette under the 2022 redistribution to recognize the Atikamekw community of Manawan within its boundaries, the riding spans the Regional County Municipality of Matawinie from the small-town agricultural belt around Joliette northward into the Canadian Shield's lake-studded wilderness. Communities include Rawdon, Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez, Saint-Côme, Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Sainte-Émélie-de-l'Énergie, and the Atikamekw First Nation reserve of Manawan, located 87 kilometres north of Saint-Michel-des-Saints on the shores of Lake Métabeskéga. The riding's population is approximately 95,000, overwhelmingly francophone, with the Atikamekw community of over 2,400 representing an important Indigenous presence.

Candidates

Gabriel Ste-Marie (Bloc Québécois) is the incumbent, first elected in 2015 and seeking a fourth term. An economist by training, he teaches economics at the Cégep régional de Lanaudière and is a researcher at the Contemporary Economics Research Institute and lecturer at UQAM. He served as Bloc Québécois House Leader from 2017 to 2018 and has been the party's finance and treasury board critic since 2021. He has made the fight against tax havens—particularly the Barbados tax loophole—a central priority.

Marc Allaire (Liberal) is a teacher originally from Lanaudière who grew up in Repentigny. He previously ran for the Quebec Liberal Party in Deux-Montagnes during the 2022 provincial election and campaigned on affordability, housing access, and improved public transit for the region.

Pascal Bapfou Vozang Siewe (Conservative) carried the Conservative Party banner in the riding.

Vanessa Gordon (NDP) represented the NDP, campaigning on workers' rights and social justice.

Érica Poirier (Green Party) ran for the Green Party of Canada.

About the Riding

Joliette—Manawan straddles two distinct geographies. The southern portion around Joliette is agricultural and semi-urban, with dairy farms, maple syrup operations, and the cultural institutions of the small city of Joliette, including the Musée d'art de Joliette and the internationally renowned Festival de Lanaudière classical music festival. The northern portion climbs into the Laurentian highlands, where forestry, outfitting, and outdoor tourism sustain communities scattered among lakes and boreal forest.

The addition of Manawan to the riding's name reflects the Atikamekw community's significance. Manawan faces challenges common to remote First Nations reserves, including housing overcrowding, limited access to healthcare and education services, and the preservation of the Atikamekw language and culture. Federal policy on Indigenous housing, clean water, and reconciliation resonated strongly in this part of the riding.

In 2025, the campaign focused on cost of living in a region where household incomes fall below the provincial average, the state of rural healthcare—including physician shortages and long travel times to regional hospitals—and the economic outlook for forestry and agriculture amid US trade tensions. Gabriel Ste-Marie's profile as a fiscal policy critic gave the race an intellectual dimension unusual for a rural riding, with debates over tax fairness and corporate tax avoidance featuring prominently.