Larry Di Ianni (born Renzo Pasquale Di Ianni, 1948) is an

Italian-Canadian Italian Canadians ( it, italo-canadesi, french: italo-canadiens) comprise Canadians who have full or partial Italian heritage and Italians who migrated from Italy or reside in Canada. According to the 2021 Census of Canada, 1,546,390 Canadians ...

politician and educator who served as the 54th mayor of Hamilton from 2003 to 2006. Prior to his tenure as mayor, he served as a town councillor in Stoney Creek and a city councillor in the amalgamated City of Hamilton.

Early life

Di Ianni immigrated to Canada from

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in 1956 as a boy. Following his father, who had immigrated years before the family and found work at

Stelco Stelco Holdings Inc. (known as U.S. Steel Canada from 2007 to 2016) is a Canadian steel company based in Hamilton, Ontario. Stelco was founded in 1910 from the amalgamation of several smaller firms. It continued on for almost 100 years, until it ...

, Di Ianni and his family settled in an apartment on Cannon Street. Pressured by his mother, an assembly-line worker in a shoe factory, to receive a university education, Di Ianni graduated from

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...

with a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in English and went on to receive his Master's Degree in Education from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

soon after. After graduating, Di Ianni moved with his wife Janet and three children, Robert, Paul and Stephanie, to Stoney Creek. There, Di Ianni was hired by the

Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board The Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board (HWCDSB) is the Catholic school board for the city of Hamilton, which includes the former Wentworth County. It currently operates 49 elementary schools and 7 secondary schools, along with ...

as a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

and quickly worked his way up to the position of principal.

Political history

Di Ianni was first elected to Stoney Creek council in 1982, where he served for six terms until the amalgamation of the town into Hamilton. Following amalgamation, Di Ianni was elected to

Hamilton City Council Hamilton City Council is the governing body of the City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Since 21 November 1960, Council has met at Hamilton City Hall at 71 Main Street West. The current council consists of the mayor In many countries, a mayor i ...

as councillor for Ward Ten, defeating former Stoney Creek deputy mayor Albert Marrone and town councillor Maria Pearson in a hotly contested race. Di Ianni served one term as a Hamilton councillor until November 2003. In early March 2003, Di Ianni was approached by members of the Ontario Liberals, including then-

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

Dalton McGuinty Dalton James Patrick McGuinty Jr. (born July 19, 1955) is a former Canadian politician who served as the 24th premier of Ontario from 2003 to 2013. He was the first Liberal leader to win two majority governments since Mitchell Hepburn nearl ...

, in an effort to convince him to run provincially against

Labour Minister Minister of Labour (in British English) or Labor (in American English) is typically a cabinet-level position with portfolio responsibility for setting national labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, traini ...

Brad Clark Brad Clark (born 1960) is a Canadian politician in Ontario, Canada. He was the councillor in Ward nine in Hamilton, Ontario from December 2006 to December 2014. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario fro ...

. Di Ianni ultimately declined the offer, noting that he wished to focus on municipal issues. In the same month, sitting Hamilton mayor Bob Wade announced he would not seek re-election in the 2003 municipal election. On April 28, 2003, Di Ianni announced he would seek the office of mayor indicating that he believed Hamilton to be at a crossroads with regard to development. Di Ianni's main opponent in the race was former provincial

NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National Deve ...

cabinet minister

David Christopherson David Christopherson (born October 5, 1954) is a Canadian politician. From 2004 until 2019, he represented the riding of Hamilton Centre in the House of Commons of Canada. He previously served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to ...

and the race focused considerably on the construction of the Red Hill Expressway, of which Di Ianni was in favour and Christopherson was opposed. The candidates sparred frequently on the campaign trail, with Di Ianni promoting his municipal experience and support from the business community while Christopherson highlighted his time in cabinet and support from organized labour and progressive political organizations. On election night, Di Ianni defeated Christopherson by a margin of 52% to 39%. Speaking to reporters, Di Ianni noted he was immensely happy that the voters of Hamilton elected their first Italian-Canadian mayor by such a large margin. Di Ianni's term as mayor saw him attempt to enact his mayoral platform by addressing such issues as the completion of the Red Hill Expressway, business tax reduction, airport development, improving relations among the amalgamated municipalities, and obtaining additional social service funding from the more senior levels of government. On July 10, 2006 Di Ianni, along with two other unsuccessful candidates, were charged under the Provincial Offences Act of Ontario for violating the Municipal Elections Act of Ontario. On August 24, 2006, he accepted responsibility by pleading guilty for violating the Provincial Offences Act related to accepting inappropriate campaign donations. The Superior Court Justice exercised leniency as he deemed the violations to be unintentional and considered Di Ianni's good community service record. The Justice also likened the violation to a speeding ticket and withdrew the remaining charges. He lost the mayoralty to

Fred Eisenberger Fred Eisenberger (born September 3, 1952) is a Canadian politician and former real estate agent who was the 57th mayor of Hamilton from 2014 to 2022. Eisenberger previously served as chair of the Hamilton Port Authority prior to his first elec ...

in the 2006 municipal election. In the 2008 federal election, Di Ianni was the

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

candidate in the federal riding of

Hamilton East—Stoney Creek Hamilton East—Stoney Creek (french: Hamilton-Est—Stoney Creek) is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2004. The riding was formed in 2003 from parts of the fo ...

, losing the race to incumbent MP

Wayne Marston Wayne L. Marston (born February 27, 1947, in Sisson Ridge, New Brunswick) was the New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Hamilton, Ontario riding of Hamilton East—Stoney Creek from 2006 to 2015. Electoral his ...

of the

by a margin of 6,464 votes. Di Ianni ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Hamilton in October 2010.City of Hamilton 2010 Municipal Election Results
/ref>

Electoral record

, - style="background-color:#fcfcfc;" !rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , Candidate !colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" , Popular vote , - style="background-color:#fcfcfc;" , style="text-align:center;" , Votes , style="text-align:center;" , % , style="text-align:center;" , ±% , - , style="background-color:#3FFF00;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Bob Bratina Robert Bratina (born 1944) is a Canadian politician and former broadcaster who was the 56th mayor of Hamilton from 2010 to 2014. Previously, he sat on the Hamilton City Council from 2004 until 2010. He went on to be the Liberal member of Parli ...

, style="text-align:right;" , 52,684 , style="text-align:right;" , 37.32% , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#FF0000;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Larry Di Ianni , style="text-align:right;" , 40,091 , style="text-align:right;" , 28.40% , style="text-align:right;" , -14.44% , - , style="background-color:#66023C;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

(incumbent) , style="text-align:right;" , 38,719 , style="text-align:right;" , 27.43% , style="text-align:right;" , -15.78% , - , style="background-color:#69359C;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Michael Baldasaro Michael A. James Baldasaro (May 23, 1949 – June 9, 2016) was a Canadian political and religious figure from Hamilton, Ontario. He presided over a religious sect known as the Church of the Universe. Baldasaro received significant media coverage ...

, style="text-align:right;" , 2,892 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.05% , style="text-align:right;" , -1.56% , - , style="background-color:#9BDDFF", , style="text-align:left;" , Tone Marrone , style="text-align:right;" , 1,052 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.75% , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#00563F;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Mahesh Butani , style="text-align:right;" , 950 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.67% , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#00BFFF;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Glenn Hamilton , style="text-align:right;" , 949 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.67% , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#E4D00A;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Pasquale (Pat) Filice , style="text-align:right;" , 768 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.54% , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#4F7942;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Ken Leach , style="text-align:right;" , 577 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.41% , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#C19A6B;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Andrew Haines , style="text-align:right;" , 557 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.39% , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#8DB600", , style="text-align:left;" , Mark Wozny , style="text-align:right;" , 433 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.31% , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#FF9966;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Steven Waxman , style="text-align:right;" , 429 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.30% , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#B2BEB5;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Edward Graydon , style="text-align:right;" , 404 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.29% , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#5D8AA8;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Gino Speziale , style="text-align:right;" , 356 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.25% , style="text-align:right;" , -0.77% , - , style="background-color:#663854;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Victor Veri , style="text-align:right;" , 313 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.22% , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" colspan="2" , Total votes , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 141,174 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 100% , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , , - , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" colspan="2" , Registered voters , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 353,317 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 40.45% , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , +3.2% , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="6" , Note: All Hamilton Municipal Elections are officially non-partisan.
Note: Candidate campaign colours are based on the prominent colour used in campaign items (signs, literature, etc.)
and are used as a visual differentiation between candidates. , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="13" , Sources:''
Hamilton, Ontario, City Clerk's Office
, - style="background-color:#fcfcfc;" !rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , Candidate !colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" , Popular vote , - style="background-color:#fcfcfc;" , style="text-align:center;" , Votes , style="text-align:center;" , % , style="text-align:center;" , ±% , - , style="background-color:#66023C;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="text-align:right;" , 54,110 , style="text-align:right;" , 43.21% , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#FF0000;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Larry Di Ianni (Incumbent) , style="text-align:right;" , 53,658 , style="text-align:right;" , 42.84% , style="text-align:right;" , −8.08% , - , style="background-color:#00008B;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Diane Elms , style="text-align:right;" , 9,459 , style="text-align:right;" , 7.55% , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#69359C;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="text-align:right;" , 4,520 , style="text-align:right;" , 3.61% , style="text-align:right;" , +1.76% , - , style="background-color:#5D8AA8;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Gino Speziale , style="text-align:right;" , 1,274 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.02 , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#4F7942;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Steve Leach , style="text-align:right;" , 1,250 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.00 , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#FCF75E;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Martin S. Zuliniak , style="text-align:right;" , 968 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.77 , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" colspan="2" , Total votes , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 126,986 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 100% , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , , - , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" colspan="2" , Registered voters , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 340,941 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 37.25% , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , −0.72% , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="6" , Note: All Hamilton Municipal Elections are officially non-partisan.
Note: Candidate campaign colours are based on the prominent colour used in campaign items (signs, literature, etc.)
and are used as a visual differentiation between candidates. , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="13" , Sources:''
Hamilton, Ontario, City Clerk's Office
, - style="background-color:#fcfcfc;" !rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , Candidate !colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" , Popular vote , - style="background-color:#fcfcfc;" , style="text-align:center;" , Votes , style="text-align:center;" , % , style="text-align:center;" , ±% , - , style="background-color:#FF0000;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Larry DiIanni , style="text-align:right;" , 70,539 , style="text-align:right;" , 50.92% , style="text-align:right;" , , - , style="background-color:#FF7F00;" , , style="text-align:left;" , David Christopherson , style="text-align:right;" , 54,298 , style="text-align:right;" , 39.20% , style="text-align:right;" , , - , style="background-color:#ffffff;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Dick Wildeman , style="text-align:right;" , 4,462 , style="text-align:right;" , 3.22% , style="text-align:right;" , , - , style="background-color:#ffffff;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Michael Peters , style="text-align:right;" , 3,270 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.36% , style="text-align:right;" , , - , style="background-color:#ffffff;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Tom Murray , style="text-align:right;" , 2,881 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.08% , style="text-align:right;" , , - , style="background-color:#69359C;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Michael Baldasaro , style="text-align:right;" , 2,569 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.85% , style="text-align:right;" , , - , style="background-color:#ffffff;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Matt Jelly , style="text-align:right;" , 510 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.37% , style="text-align:right;" , , - , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" colspan="2" , Total votes , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 139,902 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 37.97% , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , , - , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" colspan="2" , Registered voters , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 368,480 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 100% , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="6" , Note: All Hamilton Municipal Elections are officially non-partisan.
Note: Candidate campaign colours are based on the prominent colour used in campaign items (signs, literature, etc.)
and are used as a visual differentiation between candidates. , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="13" , Sources:''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Di Ianni, Larry Italian emigrants to Canada Mayors of Hamilton, Ontario Living people Candidates in the 2008 Canadian federal election Ontario candidates for Member of Parliament 1948 births Canadian educators Liberal Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons