Murray Wood: Ugly wins still count
The Saskatchewan Roughriders had to battle from behind to beat the Toronto Argonauts, but they did. Murray Wood says the...
LA BAIE — Liberal Daniel Gobeil has won the federal byelection in the Quebec riding of Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, flipping a Conservative-held seat and adding to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s narrow majority in the House of Commons.
With nearly all polls reporting late Monday, Gobeil had more than 50 per cent of the vote, well ahead of the Bloc Québécois candidate Caroline Dubé, who was hovering just under 33 per cent.
Conservative Régis Gaudreault was in third place with just 12.3 per cent.
Liberal supporters at a microbrewery in La Baie, in the Saguenay region about 200 kilometres north of Quebec City, were in a celebratory mood Monday.
Cheers and shouts of excitement, mixed with the clinking of beer glasses, rang out as they gathered to watch the results come in.
And they didn’t need to wait long. Gobeil grabbed an early lead when the first poll was counted.
The result gave the Liberals a more decisive victory than polls during the campaign suggested. The final campaign poll, published Aug. 25, had put Gobeil and Dubé neck-and-neck.
It marks the first time the Liberals have won the riding since 2015, when Denis Lemieux was elected as part of the Liberal wave that brought Justin Trudeau to power.
Prime Minister Mark Carney congratulated Gobeil on social media.
“He will be a strong voice for rural Québec and the entire agri-food sector across the country,” Carney wrote Monday.
In his victory speech, Gobeil cast the result as a message that extended beyond Chicoutimi—Le Fjord to Quebec and the rest of Canada.
“You are sending a strong message this evening,” he told supporters. “This victory helps to maintain Canadian unity.”
He added the victory would bring the voice of Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean to the decision-making table, pointing to the region’s exposure to the trade war through its forestry, aluminum and agricultural sectors.
“Our region is the most affected by the tariff war,” Gobeil said.
Two other federal byelections were also held Monday, in the east Toronto riding of Beaches-East York and the British Columbia riding of North Vancouver—Capilano. The Liberals won both of them.
The byelection for Chicoutimi—Le Fjord was called after Richard Martel, the Conservative who had represented the Saguenay-area riding since 2018, left the House of Commons to accept an appointment to the Senate by Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The Liberals argued that voters in Chicoutimi—Le Fjord would benefit from having an MP on the government benches, particularly as Canada continues to deal with the trade war with the United States.
Throughout his campaign, Gobeil argued the region would be better served by having a member of Carney’s government representing it in the House of Commons. He said voters were receptive to that message amid escalating trade tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
They also fielded a candidate with strong ties to one of the region’s key industries. Gobeil is a former president of Les Producteurs de lait du Québec, an organization representing Quebec dairy farmers.
Carney pointed to Gobeil’s candidacy as a guarantee that Canada’s supply-management system for dairy, poultry and eggs would not be sacrificed in an effort to ease tensions with the United States.
Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, situated in Quebec’s Saguenay—Lac-St-Jean region, includes dairy producers as well as forestry workers affected by U.S. tariffs and workers in the aluminum industry, which plays a major role in the regional economy.
Trade tensions with the United States intensified during the final days of the campaign, putting the tariff war back in the headlines, though the Bloc and Conservatives said they had heard less about the dispute while campaigning this time around than during the 2025 federal election.
Conservatives said voters were more likely to raise concerns about the cost of living and immigration. The Bloc said it heard about the financial difficulties facing seniors.
The Bloc had devoted significant resources to trying to capture the seat, with volunteers from across Quebec joining Dubé’s campaign.
Before the results came in, Bloc MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe told supporters gathered at a Saguenay microbrewery that he was “nervous, but confident.” Dubé previously worked for neighbouring Bloc MP Mario Simard and ran provincially for the sovereigntist Parti Québécois in Jonquière in 2022.
Conservative candidate Régis Gaudreault, a longtime lawyer and teacher at Cégep de Chicoutimi, previously worked with Jean-Pierre Blackburn, a former Conservative cabinet minister who represented the former federal riding of Jonquière—Alma.
Carney’s former deputy chief of staff, Braeden Caley, captured the seat for the Liberals in B.C., while former constituency aide Tanveer Shahnawaz won the Toronto seat.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 31, 2026.
— With files from Charlotte Glorieux in Montreal
Émilie Bergeron, The Canadian Press
