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In Profile: Monique Worth

Pierrefonds mayor making her mark

Andy Blatchford
The Gazette
Friday, May 23, 2008

In Profile

Mayor: Monique Worth

Born: May 21, 1944, in Verdun

First elected borough president: November 2001

First job: Started a 22-year career with the Ayerst pharmaceutical company at age 17

Last book read: Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

Favourite movie: The Bridges of Madison County

Hidden talent: Baking

Prized possession: A musical, porcelain ornament her mother gave her

It's been almost two decades since Monique Worth cut a trail to Pierrefonds city hall. She became the city's first female councillor, and today, the former volunteer has left her mark as borough mayor of Pierrefonds/Roxboro.

"If you want to be involved in your community, you do it," Worth said in a recent interview.

Worth, now 63, followed her husband Harry into public life, but the run only began after a devastating event rocked her family. Starting in the 1970s, the Worths were well-known volunteers in the community, through church, sports and local associations. Harry Worth had a passion for hockey, as a player and coach.

"The weekends were spent in the arena," she recalled.

In 1985, Harry won a council seat in the east side of Pierrefonds. He was re-elected four years later. But one night in November 1989, about a week after his re-election, the phone rang and she was told to rush to the hospital. Worth's life changed forever.

While Harry was playing hockey with friends, he suffered a heart attack and died on the ice in a Verdun arena.

"Your whole life falls apart," said Worth, whose three children were still living at home.

Then mayor Marcel Morin visited Worth a month later during the Christmas holidays. He asked her to run in Harry's vacant seat.

"I said, 'I don't know anything about politics,' " Worth recalled.

But she went for it.

"I won in February 1990 and I've been there since," she said.

Worth kept her council seat until the 2001 megacity election, when she was named borough president (a title that later changed to borough mayor) for gathering more votes than any councillor.

"It's not an easy job," she said of the mayor's post. "People are very demanding and it's their right. They pay taxes, they have to have services. But you're not allowed a mistake."

Worth grew up in Verdun, where she said she was an active volunteer. She married Harry in 1964 and they moved into a small Cloverdale apartment in the east end of Pierrefonds. They bought their first home, across from the A Ma Baie Park chalet in 1974.

For 22 years, Worth worked for a pharmaceutical company in St. Laurent. During a three-year stint in the 1990s, she was also a political attaché to Robert-Baldwin MNA Pierre Marsan.

As borough mayor, Worth has been a driving force behind development in the western end of Pierrefonds. Her push has often collided with residents and conservation groups fighting to halt construction on some of the island's largest tracts of undeveloped land. Worth said she hopes to limit the impact of development.

"We do have green spaces in Pierrefonds and we want to keep them," she said.