Sherbrooke

The federal riding of Sherbrooke sits at the heart of Quebec's Eastern Townships — or Estrie — where the Saint-Francois and Magog rivers converge in the rolling foothills south of the St. Lawrence Lowlands. The riding encompasses most of the city of Sherbrooke, the sixth-largest municipality in Quebec, and is enclosed entirely by its sole neighbour, Compton—Stanstead. Once an anglophone stronghold settled by Loyalists and American pioneers from Vermont in the early 1800s, Sherbrooke evolved into a predominantly francophone city over the twentieth century. The Universite de Sherbrooke and Bishop's University make it one of Quebec's major post-secondary centres, lending the riding a younger-than-average demographic profile. French is the mother tongue of roughly 88 percent of the population, though a growing number of residents speak Arabic, Spanish, and English.

Candidates

Elisabeth Briere (Liberal) — A notary by profession, Briere practised real estate and human rights law in Sherbrooke for nearly three decades as a partner at Monty Sylvestre. She also lectured at the Universite de Sherbrooke and served as president of Maison Aube-Lumiere, a palliative care residence. First elected in 2019, she sought a second mandate in 2021.

Ensaf Haidar (Bloc Quebecois) — A Saudi-Canadian human rights activist and president of the Raif Badawi Foundation for Freedom, Haidar settled in Sherbrooke after fleeing Saudi Arabia with her three children. She became a Canadian citizen on Canada Day 2018 and ran as the Bloc's candidate in an effort to bring her advocacy for free expression into federal politics.

Andrea Winters (Conservative) — A twenty-three-year-old accounting student at the Universite de Sherbrooke's business school, Winters entered the race as one of the youngest candidates in the riding's history.

Marika Lalime (NDP) — At just twenty years old and already in her second federal campaign — having previously run in Chateauguay—Lacolle in 2019 — Lalime was a history student at CEGEP who aspired to study law.

Marie-Clarisse Berger (Green) — The Green Party's standard-bearer in the riding.

About the Riding

Sherbrooke's economy was once anchored by textile mills and foundries powered by the waterfalls along the Saint-Francois River. With the decline of manufacturing in the latter half of the twentieth century, the city pivoted toward knowledge-based industries. The founding of the Universite de Sherbrooke in 1954 — a francophone institution planted in historically anglophone territory — reshaped the local economy and demographics alike. Today, the university and its affiliated research parks are the riding's largest employers.

The 2021 contest was notable for its all-female slate among the major parties. Briere's principal challenger, Ensaf Haidar, brought an international profile to the Bloc Quebecois ticket — her husband Raif Badawi's imprisonment in Saudi Arabia had drawn global attention and a unanimous House of Commons motion calling for his release. The race drew significant media coverage both locally and nationally.

Despite its university-town character, the riding faces challenges common to mid-sized Quebec cities — a relatively low median income, an aging population outside the student cohort, and a dependence on the public and education sectors for employment. Housing affordability became an emerging concern as the city's population grew modestly through both interprovincial migration and international immigration.