Spotlight on Montreal ridings: Ville-Marie-Le Sud-Ouest-Île-des-Soeurs

This rejigged riding in the southern portion of Montreal includes the downtown business core, Concordia University, McGill University, Old Montreal and Mount Royal Park, as well as St-Henri, Pointe-Saint-Charles and the most affluent area of Nun's Island.

• Canada Votes 2015
• Spotlight on ridings in Quebec
• Elections Canada voter information: Ville-Marie-Le Sud-Ouest-Île-des-Soeurs

This riding has undergone significant boundary changes twice in the past 11 years. In 2004, all of the riding of Verdun–St-Henri–St-Paul–Pointe-St-Charles and 12 per cent of Westmount–Ville-Marie were combined to create Jeanne-Le Ber. 

In 2013, the riding name changed to Ville-Marie–Le Sud-Ouest–Île-des-Soeurs and it was redrawn, combining parts of Jeanne-Le Ber (60 per cent), Westmount–Ville-Marie (25 per cent), Laurier–Sainte-Marie (10 per cent) and Outremont (5 per cent).  Verdun now belongs to the riding to its immediate west.

After the redistribution, the NDP held the riding with 41.5 per cent of the vote. 

In Jeanne-Le Ber, the two-term Bloc Québécois incumbent was buried by the NDP's Tyrone Benskin in 2011, losing by more than 10,000 votes. Benskin served in the NDP shadow cabinet until 2013, when he was kicked out for failing to have paid $60,000 in provincial taxes. He later announced he would not seek re-election. 

With no incumbent and a largely new riding, there's no shortage of candidates vying for the seat in Ville-Marie–Le Sud-Ouest–Île-des-Soeurs, including Daniel Green, one of two deputy leaders of the Green Party, and city councillor Steve Shanahan, running for the Conservatives. The NDP and the Liberal candidates, Allison Turner and Marc Miller, are both Montreal lawyers. 

• See a larger version of the riding map here

Riding History

• Various incarnations of this riding have been held by the Liberals, NDP, Bloc Québécois and Progressive Conservatives since 1962.
• A quarter of the riding used to belong to what is now Liberal-held Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount. 
• Riding represented by NDP after redistribution.

Riding snapshot

Population: 102,780 (2011 Census). 

Mother tongue: French (44.5 per cent), English (21.5 per cent), non-official languages (34 per cent; largest linguistic groups are Arabic, Spanish, Chinese and Farsi).

Average household income: $107,492 (2011 National Household Survey).

Results last election​

Jeanne–Le Ber

NDP  23,047
Bloc Québécois 12,616
Liberal 10,143
Conservative 4,641
Green 1,431
Marxist-Leninist 124

Westmount–Ville-Marie

Liberal 15,361
NDP 14,703
Conservative  7,216
Bloc Québécois  2,290
Green 1,508
Rhinoceros 148 
Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada  81

Laurier–Sainte-Marie

​NDP 23,373
Bloc Québécois 17,991
Liberal 4,976
Conservative 1,764
Green Part: 1,324
Rhinoceros 398
Communist 137
Marxist–Leninist 77
Independent candidate 73

Candidates 2015

• Chantal St-Onge, Bloc Québécois
• William Sloan, Communist Party of Canada
• Steve Shanahan, Conservative Party of Canada
• Daniel Green, Green Party of Canada
• Marc Miller, Liberal Party of Canada
• Allison Turner, New Democratic Party
• Daniel Wolfe, Rhinoceros Party

See other key ridings