- Tony Ianno
Tony Ianno, PC, B.Sc (born
January 2 ,1957 ) is a Canadianpolitician and businessman. He served as aLiberal Party of Canada MP representingTrinity-Spadina (1993-2006) and Minister of Families and Caregivers (2004-06).Political career
Ianno is a long-time political organizer and helped a number of Italian-Canadians win federal and provincial Liberal nominations in Toronto in the 1980s. He also was a key figure in organizing support among Toronto's large Italian-Canadian population for
Jean Chrétien during the 1990 Liberal leadership campaign [http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_zolf/20020722.html] , mainly by hanging around retirement homes.Trinity-Spadina
He first ran for office in the 1988 election in the
Toronto riding ofTrinity-Spadina , but was defeated byNew Democratic Party incumbentDan Heap . He was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1993 election which saw the Liberals sweep into power and win nearly every seat inOntario . Ianno was re-elected in 1997, 2000 and 2004, and was defeated in 2006.While most Ontario seats were easily won by the Liberals under Prime Minister
Jean Chrétien , Trinity—Spadina was closely fought each time. Ianno narrowly held the diverse downtown riding through four federal elections, facing strong competition fromNew Democratic Party candidates. Much of his support came from the Italian, Portuguese and Chinese areas. Toronto's traditional Little Italy and Chinatown areas are in Trinity-Spadina. Ianno narrowly defeated Toronto city councillorOlivia Chow in the 1997 election andGlobe and Mail journalistMichael Valpy who ran for the NDP in the 2000 election. In the 2004 election, Ianno again faced councillor Chow and managed to win re-election by a slim margin, as the Liberals were reduced to a minority government due to theSponsorship Scandal .On
July 20 ,2004 , Ianno was appointed to the junior position of Minister of State (Families and Caregivers) inPaul Martin 's cabinet following the Liberals' re-election.During the 2006 election, Ianno faced off against Chow for the third time. This time she defeated him, winning 46% of the vote to Ianno's 40%. Some attributed Ianno's loss to his perceived support for the
Toronto Port Authority and theToronto City Centre Airport . Although Ianno did not have an official role in the Authority's creation or policies, he nonetheless defended a controversial payout to the Authority as compensation for the cancellation of the Island Airport Bridge.His party's proposal redress the Head Tax also did not help his campaign, as the Liberals had not consulted many of the major Canadian-Chinese groups (despite claiming to), the promised amount was reduced to from $12.5 million to $2.5 million, and the pre-condition was that the government would make no apology, while the three opposition parties pledged to make a full apology. Several gaffes by the Liberals also reflected negatively on Ianno, including when
Mike Klander (the executive vice-president of the federal Liberals' Ontario wing) made posts on hisblog comparing Chow to aChow Chow dog and calling her husband an "asshole ". [http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1135637428938&col=968705899037&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News]Liberal Party of Canada Leadership Bid
After the election, the "
Globe and Mail " reported onFebruary 11 ,2006 that Ianno had been "burning up the caucus phone lines" testing the waters for a possible bid in the Liberal leadership campaign to replace Martin. [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060211.wxliberal0211/BNStory/National/home]On April 8, 2006, Mr. Ianno told
Canadian Press that he decided to run for the party presidency, in which he was unsuccessful. [http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/04/08/libs-060408.html]His wife,
Christine Innes , is currently the Liberal candidate for Trinity-Spadina in the upcoming federal election. [http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080905/candidate_announcement_080905/20080905/?hub=TorontoNewHome]Personal
Born in
Toronto, Ontario , Ianno graduated from theUniversity of Toronto with aBachelor of Science degree. He and his wife,Christine Innes , have four children. He is also the cousin of formerOntario MPP and cabinet ministerJoseph Cordiano .References
External links
* [http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/key/bio.asp?Language=E&query=145&s=M&md=1 Federal Political Biography from the Library of Parliament]
* [http://www.tonyianno.ca Tony Ianno's Website]
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