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Jan.2, 2005 - Jan.9, 2005 |
Larry Di Ianni is Hamilton's mayor
Italian-born immigrant makes history as he wins seat as Steel city's most important citizen
Originally Published: 2003-11-23
Larry Di Ianni's greatest pride is being chosen as mayor of the Iron City despite being born outside of Canada. During his victory party, surrounded by his supporters, the new mayor remembered his arrival in Canada at the age of eight, "When I could not speak a word of English." "This community gave its support to a newcomer. I feel even prouder to be the protagonist of this historic event," he said.
This success can be read in many ways. The first is vote distribution: discounting his success in the suburbs, with 70 percent of the votes in Stoney Creek and over 60 percent in Glanbrook and Ancaster, Di Ianni also won the majority of the votes in the Hamilton Mountain, seen as decisive in the final days of the campaign.
David Christopherson hanged on in his downtown bunker. Getting 57 percent of the Lower City and almost half of Dundas was not enough. The best results for him came from Wards 1, 2, and 3, his old riding as an MPP for the New Democratic Party.
From the standpoint of their positions, a decisive element was the development of the Red Hill Creek Expressway, possibly the hottest topic of the whole campaign.
The electors living on the banks of Red Hill Creek, who will be inconvenienced by construction works, supported Christopherson's adamant opposition to the road development, but Di Ianni, who is among the main supporters of the new link, did not lag too far behind. The Italian-Canadian got the votes of electors living in the Centennial Parkway area, which currently collects most of the traffic between Linc and QEW.
This election was substantially different from the 2000 one that elected Bob Wade as first mayor of the megacity of Hamilton. The suburbs and the old town proved decisive then. The map of support for Wade looked very different from Di Ianni's mosaic.
Another decisive factor was the availability of funds. Christopherson lamented the conditions of his campaign's bank account, deep in red by the end of the campaign. "When money runs out, it's out," he remarked. "At the end of the day, money is still too important in any election."
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