Andrea Matrosovs Acclaimed 2025 Grey County Warden

Town of The Blue Mountains Mayor Andrea Matrosovs will lead Grey County Council in 2025. Warden Matrosovs was acclaimed by County Council at the annual inaugural meeting on December 3.

In her inaugural address, Warden Matrosovs spoke of the power of Grey County municipalities working together and speaking with a unified voice.

“I am passionate about our shared goals and priorities of the County. We will continue to work toward building communities for the future,” she stated before mentioning several significant Grey County initiatives including the construction of Rockwood Terrace, a new Paramedic Services base in Durham, and the Grey County Housing Action Plan.

Warden Matrosovs also spoke about the opportunities for Grey County to impact the lives of residents of all ages through programs like long-term care and early learning and childcare. “Since beginning on Council in The Blue Mountains, my mantra has been to create a community for all ages and stages of life. We have the opportunity at the county level to make a difference in lives of all ages and stages,” she said.

Warden Matrosovs is serving her first term on Grey County Council. She was elected Mayor of the Town of The Blue Mountains in 2022 where she has previously served as a municipal councillor since 2018. She is the first Warden from the Town of The Blue Mountains in more than a decade and the third Woman to be elected Warden following in the path of Lois Urstadt in 1982 and Arlene Wright in 2010-2011.

Outside of her municipal work, Warden Matrosovs worked as a teacher, first at the high school and later college levels. She is a member of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 281 in Clarksburg and enjoys getting involved in local environmental sustainability projects.

Warden Matrosovs enjoys spending time with her four-generation family which includes her mother, husband, son and future daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in law, and two grandchildren.

The role of a County Warden is to lead a County Council and represent the County at official events. The warden presides over council meetings, ensuring that business is conducted efficiently and effectively. Grey County's Warden serves as a member of the Western Ontario Warden's Caucus, the Bruce Grey Public Health Unit and other boards. The Grey County Warden is elected each December by members of Grey County Council. Warden Matrosovs was nominated for the position by Councillors Dobreen and Eccles.

Andrea Matrosovs – 2025 Warden’s Inaugural Address, December 3, 2024

Madame Clerk, County Council colleagues, distinguished former Wardens, Madame CAO and staff, the residents of our Grey County community of communities, and special welcome to my family.

We at the council table and in our communities are a balance of long-standing Grey County families and newcomers. A balance of tradition and knowledgeable history and fresh new ideas and innovative perspectives. When I bought my empty property in 2001, my father delighted in gathering maps and information about our new home and found this reprint of the 1931 history of Grey County as he visited both Grey County and the Town of The Blue Mountains. I was fascinated to learn from this 1930s viewpoint and build on that knowledge to today’s perspectives and new directions. Never did I imagine when he gave me this book, that I would enter politics and join you at this table in 23 years later. 

My neighbours across the Townline are in Grey Highlands, but we are one community of Duncan and Egypt. That’s the way we live, work, play, raise our children and grandchildren, and retire. We live in one municipality and work or recreate or go to school in another.  It is what we consider here at our county table.  How do we offer a seamless livelihood to those who live in every corner of our county?

Together we are a critical mass. We become 109 thousand in population and a vast geographical imprint in the province. Our voice strengthens together, it amplifies, and we can meet the needs of our residents and visitors by delivering unified county services. We do this with an amazing county staff who collaborate regularly with our member municipality staff and equip us to make decisions here based on their experience and expertise.

I am passionate about our shared goals and priorities of the County. We will continue to work toward building communities for the future. Expanding our paramedics services with bases in Durham and the future Feversham and more location near you. We prioritize giving everyone a place to call home. That includes the construction of our new Rockwood Terrace LTC home, and our Housing Action Plan. We continue our contribution to mitigating climate change with our commitments in Going Green in Grey.  It is here by working together that we can move the needle in our constituents’ lives.  Since beginning on Council in The Blue Mountains, my mantra has been to create a community for all ages and stages of life.  We have the opportunity at the county level to make a difference in lives of all ages and stages. To facilitate growing up, working, recreating, visiting, and aging in a place of choice here in the County because together we address housing, long-term care, early childhood care, emergency services, transportation infrastructure.

It is crucial we continue advocacy with the provincial and federal governments regardless of partisan stripe. I will represent the County in wider dialogue through the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Cities Initiative and Western Ontario Wardens’ Caucus and diligently attend conferences and delegations with you all to keep our voice at the table.

I would like to thank each and every council member for your kind words and support in our conversations prior to accepting this nomination. I want to recognize Councillors Boddy, Eccles, Dobreen, Bordignon and Warden Milne for your mentorship and encouragement to stand for Warden.  Councillor Bordignon, I know this means you will be stepping into Deputy roles more at home on my behalf, and I thank you for your unwavering support. Warden Milne, I will continue your commitment to the belief that together we are stronger, and in particular, continuing to build our relationships with First Nations partners and neighbours in a learning journey and path to reconciliation.

I would like to acknowledge with the deepest respect our past wardens present today.  A special welcome tonight to our past wardens McKinlay and Knott.  I will endeavour to continue your legacy of wardens from our own municipality.

There is a legacy of pearls and politics in this chamber and its history.  Let me tell you about the story behind the pearls I am wearing tonight.  My great-grandmother had to fight with her parents to be allowed to earn her teaching certificate.  She married in 1911 and was widowed by the end of the war.  Thankfully she was able to teach for many years after that, support her family and be recognized in a profession. And my pearl earrings were my father’s mother’s. She arrived as a widow with my father and uncle as refugees in 1949 to begin a life in Canada with nothing from their former life left behind. Today, I am in admiration of the women around this table who have been here longer than I and thank you for your inspiration. I am honoured to follow in the footsteps of past Warden Urstadt and past Warden Wright. You blazed a trail to add equity to that wall of wardens at the back of this chamber.  I want to acknowledge as well from my own municipality both former County Councillors Ellen Anderson and Gail Ardiel who have sat at this table and held the banner of women in politics long before I came to the table. There are many champions in both the past and present in this county council chamber.

I would like to share with you too my gratitude for my family and their love and support. Knowing they will see less of me as I embark on this role, they have uplifted me and been with me on both the ups and downs of life in politics. It’s a family commitment. Thank you, family. You have been both a support and an inspiration because each decision I make I am thinking about the world we are creating for my grandchildren’s generation and beyond. I look forward to introducing you my County family later in our agenda along with Town of the Blue Mountains Council and staff members in attendance tonight!

I’ve been reflective about the compass that guides me as I think personally about goals for 2025. I ask each morning, what can I do today that will help others live their best life and how can I help be a steward of our planet. We do this together. We are stewards of the land and water across the county and strive to make a positive difference in the lives of our county constituents.  It’s a shared path among us to create a sustainable future for today, our children’s and grandchildren’s generations, and more to come.  This role as warden would be impossible with out all of you and it give you my commitment to walk this road together. When I read about the municipalities and history of Grey County in this book, I never would have imagined this moment today when my father gave it to me back in 2001. With all of you here this evening and each time we meet as a council and work on goals together supported by the expertise of our county staff, I can see our future is brighter together.

Thank you. Merci beaucoup. Miigwetch.

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