16 - Climbing the high ladder to success

Federal Public works and government service minister Alfonso Gagliano talks about politics and culture

Silent clerks work at their computers, or check printouts, or talk in low tones with customers over the phone. The office boss walks among their desks, with a not unfriendly attitude. Smiles and the occasional joke accompany his instructions.
If it weren't for the big posters on every wall, this office on Jean Talon St. East in Montreal could be mistaken for the accounting department of some large corporation. It is not. This is the campaign headquarters of Alfonso Gagliano, born a Sicilian in Siculiana, and now a Federal minister of Public Works and Government Services.
"Anyway, when you thought of the accounting department of a large corporation you weren't far from the truth," remarks the office 'boss,' Tony Mignacca, Minister Gagliano's collaborator for over 30 years. "A serious campaign is based on numbers, exactly like accounting. In our case, the numbers are the voters, whom we have to know well, and the Minister contacts them all, in person, via phone, or mail." Tony Mignacca also specifies that he carries out the instructions for his 'chairman of the board,' Alfonso Gagliano, who has applied his organizational instinct as well as his vocational training as an accountant to politics. But this is an old story.
The 'chairman' arrives on time for our meeting between Southern Italians (he's a Sicilian, the interviewer's a Southern Apulian). We do not speak of the campaign, but of politics, because the purpose of this interview is to understand how a boy, who arrived in Canada at 16, could climb this high.
"Actually, as soon as I arrived in Montreal," jokes Gagliano, "I went down, because I sank in snow to my neck. I couldn't imagine one could be literally buried in it. In Siculiana I had seen the snow maybe twice or thrice, and even then, a few sparse flakes of it. My first impression, on a day in December 1958, was of total dismay. And several more such moments came later, when I started looking for a job."
And why was that?
"Because when I arrived, Canada was in a full recession, and the El Dorado I was expecting turned out to be an atrocious mockery. There were very few jobs; none at all for an Italian boy who couldn't say a word in English nor in French. I was living with a sister of mine, who had come here before me, so I wasn't exactly without means. However, I really had to overcome the temptation to go back at once. Then I started looking around, and I saw that during that freezing winter the one abundant raw material was snow, so I offered to go and shovel it from the railway tracks. They took me, giving me 95 cents per hour. That was little, but more than nothing. I didn't last long, though, because after one week I got pneumonia, and my sister forbade me to go snow-shovelling again. That was my first experience with Canada."
How was Montreal at that time?
"Like all other Canadian cities: evolving, or if you prefer, under construction. But the whole country was like that. Huge and depopulated, young and sometimes ill-prepared, it nonetheless attempted to give itself a social and urban connotation. Therefore, it needed labour. Montreal already was a city - Canada's oldest - it too wanted to grow, but it wasn't equipped for bearing the effort that the country was undertaking at the time. It was also the city nearest to Halifax, where the masses of migrants coming from Europe landed at the famous Pier 21. So it was Montreal that had to cope with the enormous demographic pressure of those years, and it did not always do so successfully. It lacked structures for receiving and orienting the new labourers; it lacked laws for protecting them. In short, there was the prospect of work, but upon arrival everybody was on one's own. This is the backdrop where Italian immigration took place, eventually becoming massive."
How did Italians cope?
"Through solidarity, a trait that always characterized us. We Italian immigrants always helped one another, and that's why we became a homogeneous force. We should also not forget, then, the role played by Italian parishes, where we could find a support which was not purely moral. All this helped many of us stay and succeed."
Did you originally come to stay, or were you thinking of going back, sooner or later?
"I was thinking, hoping even, to go back. Like many of us, of course. On leaving, we said to ourselves: let's go to Canada, make some money, and return home. On the contrary, after the initial dismay, I felt comfortable in this country, because I realized that anything was possible here to people willing to get busy. So, after a list of humble jobs, I learned French and English, then I finished high school, and finally I attended university, where I got my degree. I opened an accounting office, but before that, in 1965, I married Ersilia, who's not only the woman I loved, but also the advisor I listen to most attentively."
When did political commitment set in?
"In 1984, when the Liberal Party asked me to run in the Federal Election. But I had obtained some good experience in the School Board, which I also chaired for a period. The School Boards, here, have the same powers as the Italian Provveditorati agli Studi, but the boards are elected; they are a kind of city council dealing only with education and everything concerning it. It was in the School Board period that I created my electoral machine, refining it through all my campaigns and even putting it to work for other Liberal candidates in Quebec. You see, I've always had a desire for organization, dating back to my days when I was active in the Catholic Action. Humbly, but just as firmly, I must say that many recognize organizational skills as my strongest point."
As far as I know, that has also been recognized in the past, leading to your appointment in Ottawa to liaison posts, typically given to good organizers.
"Yes, I was Opposition whip when the Liberals were in the Minority, and then whip en chef when we went to power. The whip has to coordinate the work of his fellow MPs. Then I was appointed Under-secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Deputy Leader of the Government, then Minister of Labour, and now Minister of Public Works and Government Services."
And it all began with sinking in snow...
"Exactly."
For an Italian, especially a Southerner, family comes before any other commitment. For your generation, at least. How did you manage to reconcile politics and family?
"To tell you the truth, when I was offered to run for Ottawa Parliament I hesitated, precisely because of the reason you mention. How can I be a good MP and at the same time a good husband and father, I wondered. I could see many politicians whose family had broken down, and I didn't want to do the same, especially because children had begun to come at that time. Well, it was my wife who broke the impasse with a simple yet wise reasoning. She told me: 'you always wished to become a Federal MP; now the party has made this offer, but you are perplexed. Maybe one day you'll be ready, and there will be no such opportunity any more. Take it, and let's try and find a way to make family and politics get along.' I accepted. Now I'm a career politician, with a united family that roots for me: my wife's merit."
Some things are to be achieved together: not to diminish your wife, but I think you have your own merits too.
"Yes, of course. As they say in Italy, I had 'home and shop together,' with no distraction. Even now, my safe haven is my family: my wife Ersilia, my son Vincenzo who married Caroline Mancini, my daughter Maria who married Giuseppe Caprera and had given me a splendid granddaughter, Liana, and my other daughter Immacolata, whom we call Imma."
You have always been involved in a political hot front: Quebec, with its constant separatist temptations. And you have been the expression of a community that always rejected separatism. Why aren't Quebec Italians separatists, even though they have integrated in the Quebec society quite well? They share many aspirations of the Quebec society; why not this one?
"I think for historical reasons: after labouring so hard to achieve the Unification of Italy, Italians do not like separations. I would add that behind any separatism lurks unbridled nationalism, and nationalism has always been the ideal breeding ground for totalitarianism. We Italians have been there, done that, and do not wish to repeat the experience. There are also reasons of gratitude: this country gave us much, often everything we have now, so we like it strong and united. In the 1980 referendum, Italians launched a slogan that enjoyed great popularity: 'We're here too.' As if to say, maybe separatism can be good for you, our Quebec friends, but not for us, and you cannot impose your choices on us, because we are many.
"Another reason is that Trudeau, through multiculturalism, recognized equal dignity for all, and this value can best be expressed in unity, not in division. Perhaps we have given our contribution, with our attitude and our political choices, towards making these things clear. "In fact here we speak less and less of separatism; the controversy has mostly deflated. Now there is a protest vote, which in a democracy is perfectly legitimate. But this is why it's time to move to phase two of multiculturalism."

Publication Date: 2002-12-22
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2191