Lots of ground to cover in Pontiac

Liberal Will Amos represents a riding almost as big as Maryland or Belgium.

Pontiac covers 30,586 square kilometres, stretching from Gatineau to an area about 200 kilometres north of Maniwaki, andincludestownssuch as Chelsea, Fort-Coulongeand the Algonquin community of Kitigan Zibi.

The riding has seen a lot of change: its boundaries have been redrawn several times, and it's been held by the Conservatives, NDP and Liberals.

Nearly a quarter of its residents say English is their mother tongue, while 13 per cent say they have Indigenous heritage.

Amos worked in environmental protection before taking back the seat from the NDP with 54.5 per cent of the vote in 2015.

He's up against Mario Belec of the People's Party;former Air Force pilot Claude Bertrand for the Greens;UQOprofessor Dave Blackburn for the Conservatives;Jonathan Carreiro-Benotof the Bloc Qubcois;lawyer and economic development specialist Denise Giroux of the NDP; Louis Lang of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada; and Shawn Stewart of the Veterans Coalition Party.

Candidates are included in this riding profile once they've been listed as a confirmed candidate by Elections Canada, chosen as the winner of a nomination contest or who were the chosen candidate by a party that got at least one per cent of the national popular vote in 2015.

Pontiac in 2015

Candidate questionnaires

CBC Ottawa sent every candidate running in eastern Ontario or western Quebec seven questions via their party or a publicly available email address.

They were asked to stick to 25 to 100 word answers, depending on the questions.

Theiranswers have not been edited by CBC.

Mario Belec

Claude Bertrand

Dave Blackburn