Members of Côte Saint-Luc city council and senior staff held a small reception for former Mayor Anthony Housefather on November 30, only hours before his new chief of staff Bonnie Feigenbaum drove him to the train station so he could head to Ottawa and begin life as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Mount Royal.

A nice sendoff for Anthony.

Anthony served as our mayor for the past 10 years and did an outstanding job. We will miss him terribly, but know that he has landed in a spot he dreamed about for a very long time. Councillor Glenn J. Nashen has stepped in as interim mayor and steered the ship nicely as we head towards tabling our 2016 budget. Dida Berku will assume that role in January as we await for the formal announcement of a by-election for mayor. Councillor Mitchell Brownstein has the support of Anthony and the other six sitting members of council.

Interim Mayor Nashen was a great emcee.

We wish Anthony the best of luck in Ottawa and know that he will not be a stranger to us for we have very regular interactions with our MP and his staff.

You can watch a tribute video our multi-talented communications guru Darryl Levine produced here.

A footnote to this story as Anthony co-organized a Chanukah Lighting ceremony in Ottawa, attended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, NDP leader Tom Mulcair, Conservative MP Lisa Raitt and many others. The link is  here. and embedded below.