With the municipal elections looming in November, Luskville resident Joanne Labadie has joined the mayoral race in the Municipality of Pontiac (MoP), running against Mayor Roger Larose, who is rounding out his first term.
Though this is her first foray into municipal politics, Labadie has a wealth of experience as an elected official.
“I have not sat on municipal council but I have sat on a council of commissioners at the Western Quebec School Board,” she said. “I am the chair of the Western Quebec School Board transportation committee, which has a budget greater than that of our municipality. To put it in perspective, the transportation committee that I chair has an 8.2 million dollar budget while our municipality has a 7.9 million dollar budget so I certainly have the experience.”

Labadie grew up in Quyon but has been living in Luskville for the past 12 years where she opened the Pontiac’s first licenced winery, Ferme Lavender Ridge. She said she’s considered running for council in the past but the right opportunity didn’t materialize until now.
“This is something I’ve wanted to pursue for a number of years but it’s about timing,” she said. “I didn’t want to do it while my children were too young because of commitments with business and family.”
Prior to purchasing Lavender Ridge, Labadie ran her own furniture shop and also worked in the tourism industry for many years. She said that part of her motivation for moving back to the MoP was to spur economic development in the area.
“I’ve said this time and time again, I didn’t come home to build a winery, I came to build a wine industry,” she said, adding that she has worked with several other wineries that have popped up across the region in recent years.
Labadie feels that one of the main challenges of the municipality is the discord between the two main population centres: Luskville and Quyon.
“There are many [challenges] and social harmony is definitely one of them,” she said. “We’ve historically had a bit of a divide between Luskville and Quyon who were two different communities that were amalgamated a number of years ago. Being that I’m from Quyon but now reside and own a business in Luskville, I can sort of cross that divide. I understand the issues of both communities; I’m not an outsider in either one.”
She explained some of the challenges that both regions face and some improvements that she would make.
“I believe in economic development. I haven’t seen anything happen in the 12 years I’ve been [in Luskville],” she said. “I saw a municipal government pass a budget two years ago with $200 for tourism. That’s not vision. That is not looking forward and I think that particularly in a region like Luskville – which is a strip of agricultural land between a mountain and a river – tourism is one of the many opportunities available to it with Gatineau Park and the Ottawa River. I’d like to be able to tap into that.”
“When we get into the village of Quyon, economic development cannot happen until we deal with some of the major infrastructure problems,” she continued. “We have very antiquated sewer and water systems that are not meeting the needs of the people. Roads that are in horrible disrepair and the reason, the logic for not resurfacing is the need to fix the infrastructure underneath but nobody seems to be going after the financing to do it.”
She pointed to communities like Chelsea that have capitalized on their proximity to Gatineau Park, something she sees as a priority for the MoP. She emphasized that if elected, she will be consulting with stakeholders across the region to determine the best way to move the municipality forward.
“We need to start at the bottom” she said. “My number one priority will be to consult with the community and develop a long-term strategic plan with public consultation and really get the vision from the people and start governing the municipality from the ground up.”

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