Pontiac in flux following Liberal MP's exit
CBC News | Posted: August 15, 2021 3:23 PM | Last Updated: September 15, 2021
Liberal's Will Amos announced he wont seek re-election
The Pontiac riding has been left in flux following recent viral headlines surrounding its Liberal MP, Will Amos, who has announced he won't run for re-election.
Amos made international news after he appeared naked on an internal parliamentary feed. Bloc MP Sébastien Lemire apologized for taking the screenshot of Amos, which was leaked to the media.
Approximately a month later, the MP made the news again, this time because he "urinated without realizing (he) was on camera."
He described both incidents as accidental and said he would step away temporarily from his parliamentary roles so that he can seek assistance.
While Amos won't be running, Sophie Chatel is set to replace him as the Liberal candidate. A career civil servant, Chatel worked in particular at the Ministry of Finance and the Canada Revenue Agency and, until recently, looked into the question of the taxation of web giants.
University student Gabrielle Desjardins will run as the Bloc Québécois candidate in the region. The Conservatives will run Michel Gauthier, former editor-in-chief of Le Droit.
Union lawyer Denise Giroux is running for the NDP in the riding, and engineer and small business owner David Gottfred will run for the People's Party.
The Free Party has Genevieve Labonté-Chartrand up in Pontiac. Representing the Greens is Shaughn McArthur, a member of the party's shadow cabinet that focuses on international affairs and defence.
Canada's Fourth Front co-leader James McNair has stepped up in Pontiac.
Pontiac covers 30,586 square kilometres, stretching from Gatineau to an area about 200 kilometres north of Maniwaki, Que., and includes towns such as Chelsea, Fort-Coulonge and the Algonquin community of Kitigan Zibi. In 2019, Amos won nearly 49 per cent of the vote, 19,4801 more ballots than the Conservatives, his nearest rival.
Nearly a quarter of its residents say English is their mother tongue, while 13 per cent say they have Indigenous heritage
Candidates are included in this riding profile once they've been listed as a confirmed candidate by Elections Canada, chosen as the winner of a nomination contest or who were the chosen candidate by a party that got at least one per cent of the national popular vote.