Montreal Person of the Year

Mary Deros

City Councilor

Biographical notes

Mrs. Mary Deros, first elected in 1998 as City Councilor for the district of Park Extension in the City of Montreal, was the first woman of Greek origin to be nominated to the city's Executive Committee and was given the responsibility for sports, recreation and social development for the city from 1998 until 2001. During this mandate, she was a member of the Board of Directors of the Montreal Urban Community, member of the Executive Committee of the Regional Council on Development of the island of Montreal, and member of the Board of Directors of the Regional Health Board and Social Services. She was also responsible and was special advisor to the Mayor on the Mayor’s committee for a program called “Les Quartier cibles” - a program that identified 11 disadvantaged districts for revitalization. She also was a board member of the Montreal Metropolitan Council.

Born in Athens, Greece, Mary Deros came to Canada at the age of seven. After studying tourism, sales and marketing at Lasalle College, she began a career wholesale travel. Before being elected as city councilor in 1998, she was regional sales manager for Holiday House, a travel wholesaler, for 24 years.

Mrs. Deros has lived in the district of Park Extension since 1969. She is married, has 3 children and is extremely active in the community. In 1986, she became a board member of the Park-Extension Youth Organization (P.E.Y.O.), was voted vice-president in 1990-1994, and president from 1994 to 1998 managing a budget of $1.5 million. Through Mary Deros's dedication, hard work and leadership and the support of her team, PEYO evolved from a sports-oriented organization that started in the mid 70's to a major community organization with street workers, a community kitchen, computer courses, stay-in-school programs, summer day camps and numerous other activities aimed at neighborhood children, youth and families.  During the same period she was also a board member for the local soccer association “Panellinios” and was nominated and held the executive position of treasurer for 12 years, from 1986 to 1998.       

As a City of Montreal councilor, Mary Deros was responsible for several projects involving the renovation of Jean-Talon station, the establishment of a Loblaw's supermarket, as well as the redevelopment of the Babylone community gardens, the Bloomfield and Ogilvy Centers, the redevelopment of 5 parks in Park Extension (Champagneur, Jean-Valet, Athena, Sinclair-Laird, and Beaumont parks), the development of the Saint Roch cultural and sports complex.  She is also responsible for the redevelopment of Liege and Saint Roch streets as well as the construction of the Park Extension Library that is scheduled to open in the summer of 2002.

The agreement of sister cities that was signed in 1998 between Mayor Avramopoulos of Athens and Mayor Pierre Bourque of Montreal resulted in Mary Deros's visit to Athens and Kalamata in February of 2001, with Mr. Michel Lambert, curator of the Tree Museum at the Montreal Botanical Gardens, and produced an exposition on the olive tree.  This exposition is on for the duration of two years (April 2001 - November 2002) at the Montreal Botanical Gardens promoting Olive products, Greek history, Greek products, and the Athens Olympics.

Mary Deros was re-elected in the Park Extension district in November 2001 and will sit on the Council of the new Mega-City of Montreal as member of the opposition until 2005.  She was also nominated as vice-president of a city commission responsible for transport, customer services and the intercultural communities.