By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
The federal election campaign is heating up in the riding of Shefford, which includes Granby, Waterloo, most of the MRCs of Rouville and Haute-Yamaska and the southwestern section of Val-Saint-François.
Until mid-March, polls suggested that Bloc Québécois incumbent Andréanne Larouche would retain her seat without much difficulty, but the momentum has shifted toward the Liberals in recent weeks, with 338Canada showing the seat as “LPC likely” as of this writing. Polls show the Liberals at 43 per cent, the Bloc at 32 per cent, the Conservatives at 17 per cent and the NDP at three per cent. A Liberal stronghold for much of the 20th century, the riding has alternated between Liberal and Bloc MPs since 1979, although it briefly swung Conservative from 1997-2000 and NDP from 2011-2015.
In alphabetical order, the candidates are Félix Dionne of the Liberals, Patrick Jasmin of the NDP, Larouche for the Bloc, Susanne Lefebvre of the People’s Party of Canada, James Seale of the Conservatives and Audrey-Ann Turcotte-Brochu of the Green Party.
Dionne, who stepped aside from his Granby city council seat to run for the Liberals, is an engineer who grew up in Shefford and worked for ten years for the federal government, mainly for Industry Canada. He moved back to Shefford to help his father and brother run a network of Tim Hortons franchises. Going to community events led him to take an interest in politics and run for city council, where he was given responsibility for commercial and tourism development. “As a civil servant I saw how we could develop programs, and as a business owner, I used the programs,” he said. “I’m very pragmatic, less attached to symbols and more to results. I want to see what we can get for Shefford, to use every program, every opportunity to make sure we don’t leave money on the table.”
“I worked on economic development, housing and infrastructure on city council, and those are the biggest issues in Shefford,” he said. “The other issue is our southern neighbour, the danger that’s stalking us… we have a lot of companies who have cross-border [operations] and we need to protect jobs. We also have a lot of farmers and agricultural communities. Mr. [François-Philippe] Champagne announced the party’s agricultural platform in Shefford, and I was proud that they came here. We explained our commitment to protect supply management.”
Dionne is a self-described centrist who said he believed Liberal leader Mark Carney was “the man of the moment” to “recenter” the party and defend Canadian interests amid the trade war with the United States.
Dionne said he was bilingual but learned English as an adult working in Ottawa; since coming back to Quebec, he hasn’t needed the language as much. “Some people have asked if I’ll do English campaign videos, and they’re right to ask – it’s my job to communicate with [anglophones] and I need to hurry up because it’s a short campaign.”
Jasmin is a communications professional and former paramedic who has lived in Shefford since 2019; he is running for the NDP in the riding for the second time. His mother’s family is anglophone and his children attended English school. He said the “American situation,” the rising cost of living, the housing crisis, the future of the agricultural sector and climate adaptation were the most pressing local issues.
“We’re all worried about climate change and how you can continue to be a farmer, and the support you need for climate adaptation,” he said. “We need a government that is ready to get involved, not saying we have to cut, cut, cut, lower the taxes of the privileged classes and subsidize oil – when we do that, we’re limiting the ways we can help the community. The NDP is the party that is the most ready to assume that responsibility to say, ‘Yes, we’ll invest in social programs.’ We can’t say we’re going all-in on renewable energy and ditch fossil fuels without working with workers on the economic transition and social programs and health care. I’ll keep working, whatever the polls say, and I hope people will hear that message.”
In a brief interview between campaign stops, Larouche said she hoped to continue the work she was elected to do in 2019 and 2021. “Minority governments go by fast, and I don’t feel like I’m at the end of everything.”
She said the housing crisis in urban areas, support for farmers in rural areas, and rising costs and the threat of job losses everywhere were the riding’s most pressing problems. She said the Bloc would work to protect supply management and increase allocations for people living on fixed incomes.
The two-term incumbent described herself as “an on-the ground MP, who would work in everyone’s interest,” and her Liberal rival Dionne acknowledged she was “very present.” She argued that a strong Bloc caucus would be to the benefit of both francophone and anglophone Quebecers. “We are a people of entrepreneurs; we have our own economic model and we need to maintain that. The anglophone community shares our entrepreneurial culture and they can defend Quebec as well.”
PPC candidate Lefebvre is described on the party website as a businesswoman who grew up in a bilingual and devoutly Christian family. She is a mother and grandmother and an advocate for healthy lifestyles and nutrition. “Like other PPC candidates, she opposes unnecessary foreign expenditures and believes that resources should be directed toward Canada’s economic development, healthcare system, and social safety net. She strongly opposes mass immigration and believes that anyone wishing to settle in our beautiful country should go through the legal processes,” her party biography reads. “Susanne stands for a peaceful Canada, where peace, prosperity, and human dignity are at the heart of national priorities and for a better and fairer future for all.”
Conservative candidate James Seale acknowledged an interview request but was not available to comment at press time. Seale ran for the PPC in the Montreal riding of Outremont in 2019. In a Facebook post, he describes his “multifaceted career” with military deployments in Germany, Israel, Bosnia and Haiti. After leaving the military, according to the post, he earned an MBA, CPA, and a master’s diploma in supply chain and operations, alongside becoming a certified fraud investigator. “His focus on fiscal responsibility and transparent governance stems from a deep-seated belief in maximizing value for taxpayers. Seale’s commitment to open dialogue and the defence of free speech underscores his belief in a robust and engaged citizenry,” his biography states.
Green candidate Turcot-Brochu, who did not respond to an interview request, is the director of communications and funding of the federal Green Party. “I’ve been actively engaged in my community for over a decade, serving on boards of directors for non-profits focused on women’s rights, women in sports and food security. These causes are close to my heart and continue to fuel my drive for change,” she writes in a party biography.
The federal election will take place April 28.