Liberal candidate Sophie Chatel has been elected to represent the riding of Pontiac, with 43.2% of the vote, or 25,713 ballots, well ahead of Conservative Michel Gauthier, who finished second with 12,256 votes (20.6%). This was a slight gain from the 16.4% that previous candidate Dave Blackburn achieved in 2019. Similar to the previous race, the Bloc Québécois ran a modest campaign and managed to place third, with candidate Gabrielle Desjardins earning 10,079 votes (16.9%), roughly consistent with her colleague Jonathan Carreiro-Benoit’s finish in 2019 at 16.1%.

Following her commanding win, Chatel spoke with CHIP 101.9 about the campaign and her next steps as the region’s representative. The former civil-servant stepped in to run in the summer after outgoing MP Will Amos announced that he would not be seeking re-election in August.

She thanked the electors of the Pontiac for their support.

When asked if she made any discoveries on the campaign trail, Chatel spoke about the numerous communities and people that she interacted with over the course of the race. She said that her priorities would be sustainable agriculture, protection of the environment and food security.

When asked what her first tasks as an elected official would be, she said that since she is new to the world of politics, she would be seeking the advice of her colleagues on how to be “as effective as possible” noting that there was a lot of work for the federal government to do.

Election results

The remaining five candidates finished as follows:
Denise Giroux - New Democratic Party - 6,497 votes (10.9%)
David Bruce Gottfred - People’s Party of Canada - 2,776 votes (4.7%)
Shaughn McArthur - Green Party of Canada - 1,619 votes (2.7%)
Geneviève Labonté-Chartrand - Free Party of Canada - 485 votes (0.8%)
James McNair - Fourth Front Party of Canada - 68 votes (0.1%)