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.

Born in Sicily, Italy to a sharecropping father, Pantalone immigrated to Canada with his family at age thirteen. He attended Harbord Collegiate where he was elected Student Council President. He then obtained a geography degree from the University of Toronto.

Entering politics, he lost four bids for a municipal seat before finally winning in 1980. 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.

When Toronto, five of its suburbs, and Metro Council were amalgamated into one city in 1997, Pantalone returned to Toronto City Council as Ward 19 Councillor. During Mel Lastman's term as Mayor of Toronto (1997-2003), Pantalone served as the left wing's representative on the budget committee.

With the election of fellow New Democrat David Miller as mayor in the 2003 election, Pantalone was appointed as one of the three Deputy Mayors. He retained this position 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 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". [http://www.thestar.com/News/article/193484] [http://www.thestar.com/article/209537]

External links

* [http://www.joepantalone.org Joe Pantalone official website]
* [http://www.toronto.ca/councillors/pantalone1.htm Joe Pantalone profile on City of Toronto website]

Preceded by:

Toronto City Councillor for Trinity—Spadina 1980 -

Succeeded by: incumbent