Джо Панталоне: Канада саяхатшысының өмірбаяны

Canadian politician

Joe Pantalone (born February 22, 1952) is a retired Canadian politician who served on Toronto City Council and Metro Council from 1980 to 2010. Pantalone was the deputy mayor of Toronto from 2003 to 2010, and represented the Trinity area as a councillor.

Born in the town of Racalmuto, Sicily, Italy to a sharecropping father, Joe Pantalone is the second oldest of 7 children. Pantalone, who is also often referred to as "Joey Pants", immigrated to Canada with his family at age thirteen. His father was a "pick and shovel" man who earned his living building the Toronto subway system, and his mother was a seamstress. He attended Harbord Collegiate Institute where he was elected Student Council President. He then obtained a degree in geography from the University of Toronto. Before entering politics, Pantalone was active as a community legal worker for the unemployed and a vocational counsellor.

Entering politics, Pantalone lost four bids for a municipal seat before finally winning in the 1980 municipal election. 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 1985, 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 he is often credited with bringing the facility that was in deficit in 1999 to the point of fiscal stability, as it is today. 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). During his career, Pantalone served on numerous committees for Toronto City Council. He served as the Chair of the Planning and Transportation Committee under Mel Lastman, and was also a commissioner for the Toronto Transit Commission. At that time Mel Lastman appointed him as "Tree Advocate", a title he gave up in 2006. He has also chaired various committees including Urban Environment and Development, Metro Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force, National Trade Centre Building Committee. He was the founder of the Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation.

With the election of 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. As of 2010, Pantalone held positions such as the Chair of Exhibition Place, while Mayor Miller also appointed Pantalone to be Director of Toronto Hydro and the Vice Chair of the Executive Committee. He is also a member of 11 community based Business Improvement Associations in the City of Toronto. 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".

Pantalone is now urban affairs specialist at Joe Pantalone Consulting Limited and received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. Pantalone has also been a volunteer at a local community garden and member of Waterfront Toronto.

2010 Toronto mayoral election Rob Ford 383,501 47.1% George Smitherman 289,832 35.6% Joe Pantalone 95,482 11.7%All others 45,169 5.5%Total 813,984 100.0%
Unofficial results as of October 26, 2010 03:55 AM, 1870 out of 1870 polls reporting.