Chantal Rossi is a politician in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. She has served on the Montreal city council since 2013 as a member of

Équipe Denis Coderre pour Montréal Equipe or Équipe may refer to: ''Équipe'' Équipe may refer to: * team, in French language * ''L'Équipe'', a French newspaper devoted to sports * ''L'Équipe'' (TV series), a television series broadcast in many versions and in many countries ...

. She was previously a borough councillor in

Montréal-Nord Montreal North (, ) is a borough within the city of Montreal, Canada. It consists entirely of the former city of Montreal North on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec. It was amalgamated into the City of Montreal on January 1, 2002. ...

from 2009 to 2013 and an elected trustee on the ''

Commission scolaire de la Pointe-de-l'Île The Commission scolaire de la Pointe-de-l'Île (CSPÎ) was a francophone school board in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, based primarily in the city's east end. It served Montréal-Nord, Saint-Léonard, Anjou, and Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Tr ...

'' from 1998 to 2014.

Early life and career

Rossi was born in Montréal-Nord.Chantal Rossi (2013 campaign page)
, Équipe Denis Coderre pour Montréal, accessed 5 December 2013. She is the daughter of Carlo Rossi, who represented Bourassa in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

from 1979 to 1988. In 1987, she helped convince her father to reverse his long-standing support for

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

and to vote against its re-introduction. A mother at a young age, Rossi worked for several years as a

Bank of Montreal The Bank of Montreal (, ), abbreviated as BMO (pronounced ), is a Canadian multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company. The bank was founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1817 as Montreal Bank, making it Canada ...

cashier before entering public life. She is a trained

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...

singer and has performed at concerts in Montreal.

School commissioner

Rossi was first elected to the ''Commission scolaire de la Pointe-de-l'Île'' in 1998 and was re-elected in 2003 and 2007. She was not a candidate in the deferred election of 2014.

Borough councillor

Rossi was elected to the Montréal-Nord borough council in the

2009 Montreal municipal election The city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, held a municipal election at the same time as numerous other municipalities in Quebec, on November 1, 2009. Voters elected the Mayor of Montreal, Montreal City Council, and the mayors and councils of each o ...

as a

Union Montreal Union Montreal () is an inactive municipal political party in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was the governing party in the city from 2001, when it won its first election under mayor Gérald Tremblay, until 2012. The party remained the largest singl ...

candidate in Marie-Clarac. On council, she had special responsibility for culture and preparations for Montréal-Nord's centenary in 2015. She resigned from Union Montreal on February 21, 2013, after a corruption scandal implicated some of the party's leading members and joined Équipe Denis Coderre pour Montréal on June 17 of the same year.

City councillor

Rossi was elected to the Montreal city council for Marie-Clarac in the 2013 municipal election.

Denis Coderre Denis Coderre (; born July 25, 1963) is a Canadian politician who served as the 44th mayor of Montreal from 2013 to 2017. Coderre was involved in federal politics as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada, serving as the member of Parliame ...

was elected as

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

and his party won a plurality of seats on council; on November 18, 2013, Coderre appointed Rossi as an associate councillor to the

Montreal executive committee The Montreal Executive Committee () is the executive branch of the municipal government of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The committee reports directly to city hall and is responsible for generating documents such as budgets and by-laws, which are then ...

(i.e., the municipal cabinet) with responsibility for culture, heritage, and design. She worked in conjunction with

Manon Gauthier Manon Gauthier is a politician and administrator in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She served on the Montreal city council since November 2013, and was a member of the Montreal executive committee (i.e., the municipal cabinet) in Denis Coderre's ad ...

, the executive councillor responsible for these files. Rossi continues to serve on the Montréal-Nord borough council by virtue of holding her position on city council. When Gilles Deguire resigned as borough mayor amid scandal in January 2016, Rossi was appointed as his interim replacement. She served in this role until April 2016, when

Christine Black Christine Black is a politician in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She has served as borough mayor of Montréal-Nord and as a member of Montreal City Council since winning a by-election in April 2016. Black is a member of Ensemble Montréal. Early ca ...

was elected to the position in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

. During her tenure as mayor, the city of Montreal introduced a sculpture resembling a

ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a big wheel, giant wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondola ...

as an identifying beacon in one of Montréal-Nord's busiest thoroughfares. The sculpture prompted some criticism for its $1.1 million cost, although many defended it on the grounds that it added a "rare bit of positive recognition" for the frequently troubled region of the city. Rossi was quoted as saying, "It's clear that Montreal North has experienced a lot of pain

n recent years N, or n, is the fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

This helps to put a balm on that pain."René Bruemmer, "The immobile ferris wheel of Montreal North; $1.1M work of public art intended to bring whimsy to neighbourhood," ''Montreal Gazette'', 1 March 2016, A2. In the

2017 Montreal municipal election Municipal elections were held in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada on November 5, 2017 as part of the 2017 Quebec municipal elections. Voters elected 65 positions on the Montreal City Council, including the mayor, borough mayors, and city c ...

, Rossi ran as co-candidate for Coderre in the district of Ovide-Clermont. This means that if Coderre had been elected mayor and also city councillor for Ovide-Clermont, he would have sat as mayor and Rossi would have assumed the post of city councillor for Ovide-Clermont. Coderre won the city councillor election but lost the mayoral election; as he chose to resign from municipal politics, he exercised his option to cede the city council post to Rossi.

Electoral record

Municipal

School board

References

External links

City of Montreal biography
(in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rossi, Chantal Living people Canadian people of Italian descent Montreal city councillors Canadian mezzo-sopranos People from Montréal-Nord Quebec school board members Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Canadian municipal councillors Women municipal councillors in Quebec 21st-century Canadian women politicians