Laurier--Sainte-Marie

Laurier--Sainte-Marie is a compact urban riding in the heart of Montreal, stretching from the base of Mount Royal south to the St. Lawrence River. It encompasses the trendy Plateau-Mont-Royal, the historic Centre-Sud (formerly known as Sainte-Marie), the Village, and parts of Ville-Marie, including Île Sainte-Hélène and Île Notre-Dame. With a population of approximately 106,000, the riding is one of Montreal's most politically engaged and culturally vibrant, home to a mix of artists, students, young professionals, and long-established francophone residents.

Candidates

Steven Guilbeault (Liberal) -- Born in 1970 in La Tuque, Guilbeault rose to prominence as one of Canada's most recognized environmental activists. He co-founded Équiterre in the 1990s and spent nearly a decade at Greenpeace Canada, where he led the climate and energy campaign and gained national attention for scaling the CN Tower in 2001 to unfurl a climate-action banner. First elected in 2019, he served as Minister of Canadian Heritage and then Minister of Environment and Climate Change from 2021 to 2025, overseeing the implementation of carbon-pricing policy and emissions-reduction targets.

Nimâ Machouf (NDP) -- An Iranian-Canadian epidemiologist, Machouf holds a doctorate in public health from the Université de Montréal and specializes in international health and infectious diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS. She teaches at the Université de Montréal's school of public health and has been active in community health advocacy.

Emmanuel Lapierre (Bloc Québécois) -- Lapierre carried the Bloc Québécois banner in a riding that was once a Bloc stronghold under Gilles Duceppe, who represented the predecessor riding for two decades before 2011.

Mathieu Fournier (Conservative) -- Fournier ran as the Conservative candidate in a riding where the party has historically had a limited presence, given the district's progressive and sovereigntist leanings.

Dylan Perceval-Maxwell (Green Party) -- Perceval-Maxwell represented the Green Party, emphasizing environmental policy and social justice in one of Montreal's most ecologically conscious neighbourhoods.

Michel Labelle (Marxist-Leninist) -- Labelle ran for the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada on the party's platform of democratic renewal and workers' empowerment.

About the Riding

The Plateau-Mont-Royal is famous for its colourful row houses, walkable commercial streets along Saint-Denis and Mont-Royal Avenue, and a dense concentration of cafés, independent bookstores, theatres, and artist studios. Centre-Sud, once one of Montreal's poorest neighbourhoods, has experienced both revitalization and gentrification, with condo development pushing long-time residents out of the area. The Village, centred on Sainte-Catherine Street East, is the historic heart of Montreal's LGBTQ+ community and a major cultural and nightlife destination.

The riding has a deep political history. It was represented by Bloc Québécois founder Gilles Duceppe from 1990 to 2011, then flipped to the NDP during the Orange Wave before Guilbeault won it for the Liberals in 2019. The riding's progressive character means that campaigns here tend to focus on climate action, social housing, arts funding, and minority-rights issues rather than the fiscal conservatism that dominates other parts of Quebec.

In 2025, housing affordability was the central issue, as the Plateau and Centre-Sud have seen among the sharpest rent increases in Montreal. Homelessness, the opioid crisis, support for the cultural sector, and the future of environmental policy after Guilbeault's tenure as climate minister also shaped the campaign. The riding's concentration of renters -- a large majority of residents do not own their homes -- amplified demands for federal action on housing supply and tenant protections.