Michelangelo Spensieri

Michael Angelo Spensieri (born January 2, 1949) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1981 to 1985, as a member of the Ontario Liberal Party.

Spensieri was born in Molise, Italy, and moved to Canada as a child. He was educated at the University of Toronto, receiving a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Bachelor of Laws. He practiced law in Toronto following his graduation, and was a member of the Jane/Finch Concerned Residents Association and the Canadian Italian Businessmen's Association.

Spensieri joined the Liberal Party in 1963. He first ran for the Ontario legislature in the 1975 provincial election, and lost to New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate Odoardo Di Santo in Downsview by sixty-eight votes. He was elected in the 1981 election, defeating NDP candidate Mike Morrone by 1,187 votes in Yorkview.

Spensieri supported David Peterson for the Liberal party leadership in 1982. In late 1984, he was forced to issue an apology after sending out a newsletter which portrayed the New Democratic Party as "as a group of socialists committed to the destruction of the separate school system and the murder of unborn children".^[1] He served one term in the legislature, and was not a candidate for re-election in 1985. He sought the Liberal nomination in Downsview for the 1987 election, but lost to Laureano Leone.^[2]

He returned to his law practice after leaving the legislature, specializing in government relations work at the Provincial and Federal level. He exited the crowded bar one day in 1989, after noticing that he had he had lost count of two million dollars worth of unclaimed moneys. Spensieri cited a manic-depressivevisceral illness in his defense before the Ontario Law Society, and was permitted to resign for his own well being.^[3] After this, he wrote a number of letters to Toronto newspapers describing prominent Italian-Canadian figures in the Liberal Party as cultural misfits. In 1998, he wrote that "voters of Italian heritage [...] have erred too often and too long by electing mostly Liberals".^[4]

In 1999, the socially conservative Family Coalition Party announced that Spensieri would be their candidate in York Centre for the upcoming provincial election.[5] Due to persistant cardiovascular health concerns, however, he was unable to participate.[6]

From 1989-1992 he attended Osgoode Hall Law School and was awarded the degree of Master of Laws (LL.M.) in international business trade and tax laws, in the fall of 1992 while undergoing active treatment for his disorder. Later in 1992 he received a Ph.D. in Communications and Semiotics from Wolfe's University of King's College occasionally returning to his native Molise,where he was able to reactivate the family farm bought in 1918 by his grandfather, Michelangelo Spensieri, upon his return from the United States that year. He is the Chair of the FONDAZIONE SANNIO FOUNDATION dedicated to genetic research in bipolar cardiovascular disorders,and the genetic and environmenal factors affecting the people of Sannio (Benevento, Avellino and Campobasso) living in Canada and their first degree counterparts still living in Sannio.

On October 25, 2005,a` titre de substitution, The Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto bestowed upon him the investiture of Juris Doctor, co-signed by his first year law professor, Frank Iacobucci, as Interim President.

Spensieri contributes to an Italian daily known as "Vinchiaturo" with a corresponding electronic version [www.comune.vinchiaturo.cb.it] with an audience of about 3,000 Vinchiaturesi around the world, predominantly N.America's principal cities, and Australia, Brazil and Venezuela while approximately another 1,000 are spread out in the various cities of the EU. In the 2005 Federal Election Spensieri assisted socially-conservative and faith-based candidates in various ridings in Metropolitan Toronto, stressing the moral bankruptcy of mainstream parties, especially the Liberals and the NDP.

He is currently a candidate for the Italian federal Parliament in the riding of "nordamerica est" consisting of eastern Canada, USA and Mexico where over 300,000 Italian citizens are eligible to vote. Spensieri never ceased to be an Italian citizen since arriving in Canada and has been a resident of Canada for nearly 40 years.

Notes

1. ^ Robert Stephens, "MPP Spensieri offers apology for newsletter", Globe and Mail, 12 October 1984.
2. ^ Sterling Taylor, "2,000 Downsview Liberals pick candidate", Toronto Star, 8 June 1987.
3. ^ Rick Haliechuk, "Lawyer can resign from bar in mishandling of $2 million", Toronto Star, 27 October 1989.
4. ^ Michael Spensieri, "Cultural Misfits", Globe and Mail, 11 May 1998.