Honoré-Mercier (Quebec) 128/338

 Honoré-Mercier (Quebec) 

Today we're back in Montreal with Honoré-Mercier!

Honoré-Mercier has existed as a riding since 1987, originally under the name of Anjou—Rivières-des-Prairies. The population of the riding was 103,592 in 2016. The riding contains the borough of Anjou, as well as part of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles and Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.

Politically, this seat has been pretty solid for the Liberals in recent years. It narrowly went for the Bloc Quebecois in 1993 by just over 500 votes, making it a pretty easy pick up for the Liberals in 1997. They held it steadily until 2011 when the NDP took it with just 36% of the vote, again making it an easy pickup for the Liberals in 2015. The seat is currently held by Liberal MP and Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez.

Pablo Rodriguez was first elected in 2004 after two-term MP Yvon Charbonneau decided not to run. During his initial tenure, he was the only Liberal MP from Eastern Montreal. During the 2006 Liberal leadership race, he supported Michael Ignatieff as well as became the Quebec chair for his leadership bid. In 2019, this seat was 73/78 in Quebec and 290/338 in Canada by margin.

The riding is named after the Premier of Quebec of the same name, which is not my favourite thing that Quebec ridings do. The shape is nice, I like the "L" that it makes, but I do wish that it were a bit cleaner at the bottom. The riding is not too different from the other Montreal ridings, however it does typically have southern shore Liberal margins, which is a testament to how surprising it was that it flipped.

Tomorrow we're still in Quebec with Hull—Aylmer!