La gouvernance territoriale dans l’hinterland canadien : les élus au cœur de la gouvernance territoriale ?

This article takes up the concept of ?territorial governance?, as presented in the seminal 2005 article by Leloup, Moyart and Pecqueur, in order to assess its usefulness for understanding governance in the Canadian hinterland. The hinterland refers to territories historically dependent on the extraction of natural resources. Our analysis shows that research on the hinterland has left out the role of local elected officials, focusing instead on the role of industry and the state in territorial development. We then present the results of research on three hinterland territories, namely the Madawaska-Restigouche region (New Brunswick) and the Regional County Municipalities of Pontiac and Vallée de la Gatineau (Quebec), using the typology of elected officials developed by Pinson. We show that the traditional figure of the notable elected official persists in these three territories, even if forms of elected leader closer to a logic of territorial governance are sometimes discernible. The article thus demonstrates that the concept of "territorial governance" is not limited to urban and metropolitan areas, even if it needs to be adapted to adequately capture the governance and role of local elected officials in more peripheral territories.