The Canada Day Committee for the Deux-Montagnes MRC is proud to announce that the Honorary President for our 2026 Canada Day celebration is Florindo (Flo) Stabile, President of the Deux-Montagnes Lions Club.
Flo was born in 1960 in San Clemente, near Naples, Italy. With the need for iron workers and welders in Canada, his father’s trade, his family immigrated to Canada in 1968, initially landing in Montreal North. During his formative years, his family moved to Villeray-St-Michel, before finally settling down in St-Leonard.
At age 17, Flo met the love of his life, “Mimi” (Deux-Montagnes City Councilor Micheline Groulx-Stabile). He got up the courage to introduce himself to her at, the social hub of the day, a roller rink. They immediately fell in love and got married in 1981.
In the late 80s, Flo began working at Rolls-Royce as a mechanic, a career that lasted up until his retirement in 2020, a 34-year span.
In 1991, with their desire to become homeowners, Flo and Micheline, with their two children, Samantha (b. 1988) and Anthony (b. 1990), went house-hunting north of the City. Flo’s co-worker recommended Laval West, but as fate would have it, they “drove through Laval West, crossed a bridge, turned left” and found Deux-Montagnes. The happy couple still resides today in that same house that they bought in 1991.
Though Flo moved out of “Little Italy”, Little Italy had not moved out of Flo. He remained involved with the Associazione Gallucciana del Quebec, an organization which supports hospitals and seniors, included retrofitting bathrooms for those in need. He was an active member of this organization for 15 years, including being its president from 2001 to 2003. His father and brother are still members today!
Fast forward to 2013, the year his wife was elected to city council, he noticed three older gentlemen carrying heavy boxes into the Canadian Tire in St-Eustache. He saw them struggling a bit and offered to help them. This began a whole new phase of Flo’s life, as the three men were Lions and the boxes were full of fruit cakes for sale!
Joining the Deux-Montagnes Lions Club shortly thereafter, Flo became President in 2016, a position he still holds today. The local Lions Club is a mainstay of community service and activism, and celebrated its 50th birthday last year. The Club provides wheelchairs, walkers and eyeglasses for those less fortunate, all the while raising money for community groups through hot dog sales, garage sales, fruit cake sales around Christmas, Italian sausage sandwiches sales at Canada Day, and of course, their all-important Book Fair in October (one of the largest in Quebec). It is hard to be at a community event in Deux-Montagnes without crossing paths with the Lions.
Although volunteerism had declined in all community organizations, under his leadership, Flo has successfully grown the Club’s membership from 17 to 37 members. Moreover, Flo is extremely grateful that, through his actions and those of the Club, a senior can gain back some autonomy through having a walker or a wheelchair that they could otherwise not afford. Seeing this direct impact on people’s lives is what motivates Flo, hoping that if he is ever in a similar situation, an organization like the Lions will be there for him. The Committee is thrilled to have Flo as our honorary president. His dedication to our community is unwavering and he is clearly deserving of this recognition. We are just hopeful that he can spare a few minutes for the opening ceremony at noon on July 1st, as he will be leading the Lions efforts to sell their traditional Italian Sausage sandwiches at the field!