Marc-Aurele-Fortin

Marc-Aurele-Fortin occupies the north-central portion of Ile-Jesus in the City of Laval, named for the celebrated Quebec landscape painter Marc-Aurele Fortin (1888--1970). The riding takes in the neighbourhoods of Auteuil, Sainte-Rose, the eastern part of Fabreville, and the western part of Vimont, stretching north of Autoroute 440. With a population of roughly 102,000, the district is a largely suburban mix of single-family homes, townhouse developments, and pockets of commercial activity along the major boulevards. French is the mother tongue of about 67 percent of residents, while significant immigrant communities -- particularly from Haiti, Morocco, and Lebanon -- make Arabic, Creole, and Spanish common secondary languages.

Candidates

Carlos Leitao (Liberal) -- Born in Portugal, Leitao immigrated to Canada in 1975 and studied at McGill University. He built a distinguished career in economics and finance, spending two decades as an economist at the Royal Bank of Canada before becoming chief economist at Laurentian Bank Securities, where Bloomberg News ranked him the world's second-best economic forecaster in 2008. He served as Quebec's Minister of Finance from 2014 to 2018 under Premier Philippe Couillard and sat in the National Assembly for Robert-Baldwin until retiring from provincial politics in 2022. He was subsequently appointed to the Bank of Canada's board of directors in 2023 but resigned the position to run federally, citing the threat posed by US trade tensions to Canada's economy.

Claude Tousignant (Bloc Quebecois) -- A veteran educator who spent 35 years in youth education and was known locally as the voice of the Loups at Cure-Antoine-Labelle school, Tousignant has been a sovereigntist activist since his adolescence and has held various executive positions in the local Bloc Quebecois and Parti Quebecois associations in Laval since 1990.

Janina Moran (Conservative) -- Moran ran as the Conservative candidate in Marc-Aurele-Fortin, campaigning on the party's national priorities of tax relief, housing construction, and fiscal responsibility.

Alexandrah Cardona-Fortin (NDP) -- Cardona-Fortin represented the NDP in the riding, running on a platform of pharmacare, affordable housing, and support for working families.

About the Riding

Sainte-Rose, the riding's historic heart, dates to the early 18th century and retains a village character along the Riviere des Mille Iles, with heritage buildings, a marina, and the Vieux-Sainte-Rose commercial strip. Auteuil and the eastern portion of Fabreville are newer residential developments that expanded rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s as Laval transformed from farmland into one of Quebec's largest suburbs.

Laval's economy has diversified well beyond its former reputation as a bedroom community. The island hosts significant employers in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, food processing, and education. In 2025, the key campaign issues in Marc-Aurele-Fortin were housing affordability -- which has tightened sharply across Laval as Montreal-area prices spill outward -- public transit connections to Montreal, healthcare access, and cost of living. Leitao's economic credentials and the riding's large immigrant population made trade policy, integration services, and economic management particularly salient themes.