La Prairie (Quebec) 147/338

 La Prairie (Quebec)

Today we're in southern Quebec with La Prairie!

La Prairie has existed as a riding three separate times, from 1867-1896, from 1968-1997, and 2015 to present. The population of the riding was 105,496 in 2016. The riding contains the cities of Saint-Constant (27,359 in 2016), La Prairie (24,110 in 2016), and Candiac (21,047 in 2016). 

Politically, this seat has been receptive to the recent trends in Quebec. Held by the PC's from 1984-1988, won by the Bloc in 1993 and stayed with them until 2011. Won by the NDP in 2011, swung to the Liberals in 2015, and made its way back to the Bloc in 2019. Worth noting that the Liberals had their best Montérégie performance here in 2011, winning 27% of the vote. This seat is currently held by Bloc MP Alain Therrien.

This seat has very interesting political geography. The east side of the riding (La Prairie, Candiac) tends to vote Liberal while the west side is usually Bloc/2011 NDP. There are a couple factors that push this: the east side has a higher average income ($99k in La Prairie and $135k in Candiac), a higher visible % (10.8% in La Prairie and 11.4% in Candiac), and the riding is right next to the safe Liberal riding Brossard—Saint Lambert. In 2019, this seat was 16/78 in Quebec and 48/338 in Canada by margin.

The name is okay, I do wish that it were called Roussillon, it has most of the region, and I'd rather have a name too broad than one that only represents 20% of the constituents. The shape is also nice, a good clean shape. As for individuality, cool geography but it is pretty typical for a Montérégie seat.

See you soon in Labrador!