Joe Pantalone
Joe Pantalone (born 1952) is a Canadian politician, city councillor for Ward 19, one of two wards in Trinity—Spadina, and deputy mayor of Toronto, Ontario. He is a candidate for Mayor of Toronto in the 2010 municipal election. In his campaign, Pantalone is highlighting his experience in municipal politics compared to other candidates, saying, "People are looking around at the outsiders and think their experience does not match mine"; he also said the approach to the city's finances should be "clinical as opposed to a sledgehammer."[1]
Early life
Born in Sicily, Italy to a sharecropping father, Pantalone immigrated to Canada with his family at age thirteen. He attended Harbord Collegiate Institute where he was elected Student Council President. He then obtained a geography degree from the University of Toronto.
Political career
City councillor
Entering politics, Pantalone lost four bids for a municipal seat before finally winning in the 1980 municipal election. He has remained a municipal politician ever since, with over 25 years at City Hall. In the 1987 provincial election, he ran as an Ontario New Democratic Party candidate in the riding of Fort York. He lost a very close race to Liberal candidate Bob Wong by only 137 votes. In 1988, Pantalone was successful in his bid to be elected to the Metropolitan Toronto council. He ran for the chair of Metro Council in 1991 and 1994, but he lost both times to Alan Tonks. On council, his most prominent role was as chairman of Exhibition Place and as an advocate for increasing the number of trees in the city.
The 1997 amalgamation election, so-called because of the forced amalgamation of all the municipalities that made up Metropolitan Toronto, saw Pantalone returned to Toronto City Council as the Councillor for Ward 20—Trinity Niagara, which was under the same boundaries as his previous Metro seat, during Mel Lastman's term as Mayor of Toronto (1997–2003).
Deputy Mayor
With the election of fellow New Democrat David Miller as mayor in the 2003 election, Pantalone was appointed as one of three Deputy Mayors. He retained this position alone after the 2006 election, while Mike Feldman was dropped and Sandra Bussin became speaker of city council. In recent years, Pantalone has been active in promoting environmental issues. He has been given the title of "Tree Advocate".
In 2006, Pantalone spent $248,817 in salary and benefits for his support staff, the second highest on council after Howard Moscoe. He argued that he had executive assistants and both were very senior and so were paid more. In an interview, he stated "Historically, people have wanted to stay with me ... and I think the city got good value out of them. I like to be No. 1 in giving to the city, so sometimes it (means) No. 1 in expenses, too".[2]
References
- ^ Deputy mayor Pantalone plans run for top job, Globe and Mail, November 28, 2009
- ^ Donovan Vincent. Who are big spenders at city hall? Toronto Star. March 19, 2007. [1]
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