Seven-term local rep lost November 2 election by 44 votes after a recount
For someone who just lost her first election in 27 years, Mary Deros was in a remarkably upbeat mood earlier this week, around two weeks after the November 2 City of Montreal elections.
First elected as the city councillor for Parc Extension district in 1998, Deros was easily re-elected in most elections after then, although her share of the vote had steadily declined to within just a few hundred ballots of her nearest rival in the 2021 vote.
Defeated by 44 votes
In the latest round of balloting at the beginning of this month, the result gave a razor-thin six-vote advantage to Projet Montréal’s Elvira Carhuallanqui. But after Deros filed for a judicial recount, Carhuallanqui finished 44 votes ahead and Deros’ time in office was officially over.
“I’m doing well,” she replied to Nouvelles Parc Extension News when asked how she was bearing up after an outcome that for most people could only have been disappointing.
While there is a perception of successful politicians that they waltz through elections and score easy wins, the most experienced will tell you about all the effort and teamwork that go into campaigning.
And then there’s the constant and nagging insecurity (even when there are wide margins of victory) that the next election will be the one when the bottom finally falls out.
A deflating loss
Like prize fighters, most politicians with who establish a good track record eventually hope to go out in a blaze of glory, with at least one last electoral win, rather than a deflating loss. Adding to the bitterness in Deros’s case is the fact the decision was so close.
“All I can say is that I feel enlightened, relieved that it’s over,” she said. “Time to move on to other things.”
Over nearly the past three decades, Deros, like a neighborhood overseer, was renowned for her seemingly omniscient awareness of everything going on in her district, along with her detail-focused management of issues like trash removal and local traffic management.
A network of contacts throughout the area would keep her clued in as to what was going on at any given moment. Anyone who spent just five minutes in Deros’s company would hear the buzz of her smartphone in silent mode going off every few seconds at times.
She was the go-to during crises
There might be texts from residents about the latest local crises, perhaps involving invasions of mice, or seniors stranded in their homes because of inadequate snow clearance during the winter on Parc Extension’s densely-populated streets.
Deros first entered politics at the invitation of former Montreal mayor Pierre Bourque who led the Vision Montreal party.
Before then, she had been a highly-active board member with a local soccer association as well as the Parc Extension Youth Organization (PEYO). Deros always expressed immense gratitude to Bourque for providing her with the springboard that propelled her forward into many decades of involvement in Montreal city politics.
Time to relax, says Deros
As for what she plans to do with her time from now on, Deros said she has no special plans. “Just taking it easy, put my house in order,” she said, adding that she needs to find space at home for the 27 years’ worth of memorabilia that she had accumulated at the office.
“I’m going to sit at home and relax, visit friends, catch up on things and enjoy the company of my granddaughter,” she said. “I will be home more often, I will be cooking, I will be baking. The Christmas holidays are coming up, so there’s going to be a lot of Christmas celebrating.”
