Clare

Candidates

Current MLA: Wayne Gaudet (LIB)

District profile: This district, located in Digby County in southwest Nova Scotia, is about 80 per cent French-speaking. It's home to the province's only French-language university, Université Ste-Anne at Church Point, and North America's oldest Acadian festival.

The fishing communities of Weymouth in the north and Salmon River in the south serve as its bookends.

Lobster and scallop catches in St. Mary's Bay and along the Fundy coast are critical to the economy.

Boat building (pleasure craft as well as fishing trawlers) has boomed in recent years.

District map: Clare (PDF)

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2006 results

Voter turnout: 82.45 per cent in 2006

Political history

Clare has generally voted Liberal since the 1970s, with the exception of the 1984 and 1988 elections, when Clare chose the government side and elected Progressive Conservative Guy LeBlanc.

Wayne Gaudet, a former education minister and interim Liberal leader, has represented Clare since 1993.