Doreen Assaad is a Canadian politician. She has been mayor of

Brossard Brossard ( , , ) is a municipality in the Montérégie region of Quebec, Canada and is part of the Greater Montreal, Greater Montreal area. According to the Canada 2021 Census, 2021 census, Brossard's population was 91,525. It shares powers with ...

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, ...

since 2017, and was re-elected in 2021. Before that, she was a city councillor from 2009 to 2017. She is the second female mayor in the history of the city.

Early life

Assaad was born in

as the daughter of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian immigrants who came to Canada in the 1970s. Assaad has a degree from the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

in applied mathematics and computer science. She has worked for

Desjardins Group The Desjardins Group (, ) is a Canadian financial service cooperative and the largest federation of credit unions () in North America. It was founded in 1900 in Lévis, Quebec by Alphonse Desjardins. While its legal headquarters remains in Lé ...

, the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

and

Bombardier Aviation Bombardier Aviation, a division of Bombardier Inc., is headquartered in Dorval, Quebec, Canada. The company currently produces the Bombardier Global Express, Global and Bombardier Challenger 600, Challenger series of Business jet, business je ...

as a business process optimization specialist. She moved to Brossard in around 2002.

Political career

Assaad was elected to

Brossard City Council The Brossard City Council (in French: ''Le conseil municipal de Brossard'') is the governing body for the mayor–council government in the city of Brossard, Quebec in the Montérégie Montérégie () is an administrative region in the southwest ...

in the 2009 municipal elections, representing District 1. She was re-elected for a second mandate in the 2013 municipal elections, representing District 9. She was a member of the Priorité Brossard party, led by mayor Paul Leduc. She quit the party in 2016, citing a toxic atmosphere with the mayor. After leaving Leduc's party, she formed her own party called Brossard Ensemble (Brossard Together). Assaad was elected as mayor of Brossard in the 2017 mayoral election in a four-way race, defeating former

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

Member of Parliament Hoang Mai, incumbent mayor Paul Leduc and former mayor Jean-Marc Pelletier. She and her party, Brossard Ensemble, won nine of the 10 seats on council. She was re-elected with a large majority in the 2021 mayoral race, with her party winning all but two seats on council. In 2023, she was elected to the board of directors of the Union des Municipalités du Québec, for a two-year mandate. In 2024, Centre Sino-Québec de la Rive-Sud, a Chinese community centre and its director, city councillor Xixi Li, launched a defamation lawsuit against Assaad. Li alleged that Assaad made "false and damaging statements against her" following an RCMP investigation into the community centre which believed the Chinese government was running a police outpost there. In the lawsuit, Li stated that Assaad asked her to step down as councillor and made many statements to journalists and on social media questioning her and her organization's integrity and transparency. Assaad sits as a member of the Economic Development, Finance and Employment Committee of the Montreal Metropolitan Community, and she is a member of the Plan métropolitain d’aménagement et de développement (PMAD) special commission. She is also the vice president of the

Réseau de transport de Longueuil Réseau de transport de Longueuil (, RTL; ) is a public transit system in the city of Longueuil, Quebec, Canada, and nearby communities on the South Shore of Montreal. The RTL had an annual ridership of 34,447,686 in 2013. History RTL was offic ...

, and sits on the board of directors of Tourisme Montérégie. As mayor of Brossard, Assaad also sits on the council of the

Urban agglomeration of Longueuil The urban agglomeration of Longueuil was created on January 1, 2006 as a result of the 2000–06 municipal reorganization in Quebec#Calls for de-amalgamation, de-amalgamation process brought upon by the Jean Charest, Charest government. It encomp ...

Personal life

Assaad is married and has three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Assaad, Doreen Living people Women mayors of places in Quebec 21st-century Canadian women politicians People from Brossard 21st-century mayors of places in Quebec Université de Montréal alumni Canadian National Railway people Canadian people of Egyptian descent 21st-century Canadian women mathematicians Businesspeople from Quebec Year of birth missing (living people)