Toronto Prepares for Miller Time

Pantalone, Li Preti, Nunziata, Augimeri, and Di Giorgio return to City Council

As it happened with the provincial elections, the polls were confirmed in the ballot box: David Miller is the new mayor of Toronto, after beating John Tory who proved his worth by losing only by a few tens of thousands of votes. With vote counting done electronically, results came shortly after 8 p.m.: Miller started in the lead and maintained his position to the end.
The new mayor is of course very satisfied with the results. "I wish to thank you all for your support," he declared, "and I feel optimistic about the future of this city." Miller stated his desire to get to work at once. "Later tonight I shall get in touch with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and the Right Hon. Paul Martin."
Live from Florida, mayor Mel Lastman was interviewed by CFTO. He congratulated the winner and offered his full co-operation for a smooth and quick "changing of the guard."
John Tory declared his satisfaction with the campaign: "during these weeks we made incredible strides." In his speech he remembered the beginnings of his 'bet': "In a cold February morning, with support at a dismal four percent."
Tory offered Miller his congratulations: "He led a hard yet honest campaign, and he has my respect."
Tory was joined by former Ontario Premier Bill Davis, one of his staunchest supporters. Davis said he was happy with the campaign conducted by his candidate. "Certainly," he added, "the political career of this gentleman has just begun. We shall hear more from him."
As far as his political future was concerned, John Tory dodges questions from the press by remaining as vague as possible. Many people predict a future for him at the federal level.
The new city council will include a significant number of Italian-Canadians. All incumbents who chose to run for re-election recovered their seats. They include Joe Pantalone, Peter Li Preti, Frances Nunziata, Maria Augimeri, and Frank Di Giorgio.
Giorgio Mammoliti had already been acclaimed for lack of opponents. Lorenzo Berardinetti and Betty Disero did not run (Disero's seat went to her former assistant Nick Palacio), and Mike Del Grande and Adam Giambrone joined the Council.
Elliot Rizzo also performed quite well in the Ward won by incumbent Howard Moscoe.
The final results for the mayoral race give David Miller 299,372 votes, John Tory 263,184, Barbara Hall 63,748, John Nunziata 36,020, and Tom Jakobek only 5,275.
There were 44 candidates; the other 39 split the remaining 24,458 votes.


Vaughan's mayor is Italian

In accordance with forecasts, Michael Di Biase won the run for Vaughan mayor. The city's vast Italian-Canadian community has finally expressed the Italian-Canadian mayor that many hoped for.
Challenger Robert Craig obtained a good share of the vote, confirming that his campaign - supported by the Toronto Star and several local associations - managed to convince numerous voters.
As soon as he learnt the results, the new mayor restated his will to keep following the Vaughan Vision 2007 development prepared by the previous city council and strongly supported by Di Biase himself.
Much higher tension surrounded the six candidates for regional councillors. In the last few months, Gino Rosati, Mario Ferri, Joyce Frustaglio, Joanna Lionti, Linda Jackson, and Bernie Green exchanged some hard blows. On election night, Ferri, Frustaglio, and Jackson led in the early hours, but none of them declared victory before the final results were in.
In regards to city councillors, Tony Carella and Nick Pinto raced to the last vote in Ward 2, with Carella eventually prevailing, while Peter Meffe easily won the seat for Ward 1.
Ward 5 had already acclaimed Susan Kadis, and Bernie Di Vona had little trouble securing his re-election in Ward 3.
The Racco family will continue to represent the residents of Ward 4: after Mario (now a Liberal MPP) now's the turn of his wife Sandra Yeung.


Di Ianni will lead Hamilton

The mountain has given birth to Larry Di Ianni. Hamilton's new mayor, the first of Italian heritage in the Iron City, won the key Mountain Wards 6, 7, and 8, where voters preferred the former Stoney Creek councillor over NDP's David Christopherson.
Confirming forecasts, Christopherson won the downtown while Di Ianni won in most of the suburbs. The crucial battle was for the Mountain.
The campaign manager for Di Ianni had underscored very early how Wards 7 and 8 had more votes than Ancaster, Flamborough and Waterdown combined, thus becoming a potentially decisive factor in the competition.
Similarly, Christopherson's campaign manager had also concentrated the last efforts in that area.
Larry Di Ianni obtained over 50 percent of the votes, leaving Christopherson around 40 percent. The other candidates were left far behind, with Dick Wildeman getting 3.3 percent, Michael Peters 2.4, Tom Murray 2.1, Michael Baldassaro 1.9, and Matt Jelly 0.4.
In Ward 4 the victory went to an Italian-Canadian candidate, Sam Merulla, with 54.22 percent of the votes. Lynda Lukasik came in second at 37.09 percent. Carmen Misale only got 136 votes.
Another Italian-Canadian won Ward 3: Bernie Morelli fionished the race with a convincing 67.5 percent, leaving John Best at 28.34 percent.
John Santarelli, on the other hand, lost in Ward 10; his 29.66 percent was insufficient to beat Maria Pearson (37.0 percent). The same fate befell another Italian-Canadian candidate, Jeff Corradetti, who got less than three percent of the votes.
David Longo was defeated in Ward 14. His opponent Russ Powers won the race with 29 percent.
The West Mountain Ward of councillor Frank D'Amico, who decided not to run for another mandate, went to Bill Kelly, who won easily with 64.66 percent of the votes.

Publication Date: 2003-11-16
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=3367