Ensemble Montréal’s bid for reelection in Parc-Extension
City councillor Mary Deros and her Ensemble Montréal team inaugurated their newly opened electoral campaign office last Wednesday evening in Parc-Extension’s north-end.
The office is located at the corner of Champagneur and Liège and will act as the headquarters for the party’s activities in Park-Extension up until the municipal election on Nov. 7.
In attendance was city councillor Mary Deros, along with several other Ensemble Montréal members and candidates. Saint-Michel city councillor Josué Corvil, city council candidate for Villeray Mourad Romdhane and borough mayoral candidate Guillaume Lavoie were in attendance.
Both mayoral candidate Denis Coderre and François-Perreault city council candidate Mike Parente were not present.
Blessing
As in previous electoral campaigns, city councillor Deros inaugurated the new office with a Christian blessing. The religious ceremony was performed by local Greek orthodox Reverend Father Nicolas P. Andreou, who is Deros’s priest and from the same Greek island of Samos as her parents.
The ceremony included religious songs and readings from the bible in both English, French and Greek. The reverend then blessed the office using holy water and a bundle of vasiliko, known in English as basil.
Although the event was a Greek orthodox religious ceremony, the crowd was made up of people from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds from across the community.
Continued support
Both Deros and Lavoie addressed the group in attendance, thanking them for their continued support. “I’m grateful for your presence,” she added to the crowd of her supporters.
“As in every election, we always start our official opening by having our offices blessed by my priest and I appreciate you being here and understanding,” said Deros, right before Father Nicolas P. Andreou began the ceremony.
Once the blessing was over, mayoral candidate Guillaume Lavoie also addressed the crowd. “Thank you all for being here, we need your support,” he remarked, adding “we can’t do this without you.”
“Our solemn commitment to you and the people of Parc-Ex is that we’re going to strive, we’re going to work tirelessly to make sure that this neighbourhood is as famous and as beautiful and as welcoming and as clean and as prosperous as it is on the Villeray side or the TMR (Town of Mount Royal) side,” stated Lavoie.
Prominent residents
The invitation-only event was also attended by prominent citizens from various community organizations. This included the Himalaya Seniors of Quebec president Vathany Srikandarajah and the organizations’ general secretary Nizam Uddin.
Jatinder Bandhari along with CB Singh of the India-Canada Association of Montreal were also present at the event. Due to COVID-19 guidelines, capacity was limited to only 20 people, with roughly that number present.
The event closed with party members and guests mingling, discussing and taking pictures in the newly opened electoral campaign office at 752 Liège Ouest. The municipal elections will take place on Nov. 7.
