Maurizio Bevilacqua (; born June 1, 1960) is a Canadian politician who was mayor of Vaughan from 2010 to 2022. He was a Liberal

member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) from 1988 to 2010 and was one of eleven candidates for the 2006 leadership contest, but dropped out of the race on August 14, 2006. He has been described in the media as a "right-of-centre, business friendly Liberal". He resigned his seat in the House of Commons of Canada and announced on September 3, 2010, that he would be a candidate for mayor of

Vaughan Vaughan () (2021 population 323,103) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increas ...

."Bevilacqua confirms Vaughan mayoral run"
''CBC News'', September 3, 2010. Retrieved 2014-06-4. On October 25 he was elected mayor.

Early life

Born in

Sulmona Sulmona ( nap, label= Abruzzese, Sulmóne; la, Sulmo; grc, Σουλμῶν, Soulmôn) is a city and ''comune'' of the province of L'Aquila in Abruzzo, Italy. It is located in the Valle Peligna, a plain once occupied by a lake that disappeared in ...

, Italy, he arrived in Canada in 1970 at the age of 10. As a youth, he attended Emery Collegiate and received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

from

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

. He is also a graduate of Fordham University- The Jesuit University of New York City where he earned his Master of Arts degree. He has two children, Jean-Paul and Victoria.

Politics

He first got involved in

party politics A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

by working as a staffer for Sergio Marchi,Bevilacqua considers leadership bid
/ref> and would later participate in student politics at York University. Initially elected in the 1988 election, he defeated the Progressive Conservative candidate by only 77 votes. Due to the closeness of the race, the results were voided by the courts, and a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

was called for 1990.History of Federal Ridings since 1867
/ref> Bevilacqua surprised many when he defeated

parachute candidate A parachute candidate, or carpetbagger in the United States, is a pejorative term for an election candidate who does not live in, and has little connection to, the area they are running to represent. The allegation is thus that the candidate is b ...

Maria Minna for the Liberal nomination in the 1990 by-election of

York North York North was a federal riding in Ontario, Canada, that was in the House of Commons of Canada from Confederation in 1867 until 2004. The federal riding was eliminated in 2003 when it was redistributed between two new ridings of Newmarket—A ...

. He won the by-election by over 7,000 votes, despite a strong effort by the New Democratic Party. Bevilacqua represented the districts of

(1988–1997),

Vaughan—King—Aurora Vaughan—King—Aurora was a federal electoral riding in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1997 to 2004, and was a provincial electoral riding represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1 ...

(1997–2004) and

(2004–2010). He is a former secretary of state (Science, Research and Development) and (International Financial Institutions). He is also a former parliamentary secretary to the minister of Labour (Human Resources Development) and to the Minister of Employment and Immigration (Human Resources Development). He was formerly a consultant. He was the longtime chair of the Commons finance committee. While a fiscal conservative, Bevilacqua has supported

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

. Bevilacqua was the first Liberal to declare his support for

Paul Martin Paul Edgar Philippe Martin (born August 28, 1938), also known as Paul Martin Jr., is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 21st prime minister of Canada and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006. The son o ...

's failed 1990 bid for the leadership of the party. He holds the record for the largest personal margin of victory in a Canadian federal election, winning his seat by a margin of 51,389 votes over his closest rival in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

2006 Liberal leadership bid

On April 19, 2006, he declared his candidacy for the leadership of the Liberal Party, joining

Martha Hall Findlay Martha Hall Findlay (born August 17, 1959) is a Canadian businesswoman, entrepreneur, lawyer and politician who previously served as the president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation, a Calgary-based think tank, and is now senior vice-preside ...

Michael Ignatieff Michael Grant Ignatieff (; born May 12, 1947) is a Canadian author, academic and former politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a histo ...

, and

Stéphane Dion Stéphane Maurice Dion (born 28 September 1955) is a Canadian diplomat, academic and former politician who has been the Canadian ambassador to France and Monaco since 2022 and special envoy to the European Union since 2017. Dion was Leader of ...

as official entrants into the leadership race. His supporters included MPs Gerry Byrne and

Roy Cullen ''For the Texas businessman, see Hugh Roy Cullen.'' Roy Cullen, (born December 30, 1944, in Montreal, Quebec) is a former politician who was a Liberal MP for the riding of Etobicoke North in the House of Commons of Canada. Background Cullen ...

, former Cabinet minister Roy MacLaren and former party pollster Michael Marzolini. He also attracted the support of former Chrétien organizers Tennio Evangelista, Jeff Angel and Jeff Smith. His campaign for the Liberal Party leadership was not successful and he dropped out of the race on August 14, 2006 to support fellow Liberal Party leadership candidate Bob Rae.

Mayor of Vaughan

Bevilacqua officially announced in early September 2010 that he was running in the 2010 Vaughan municipal election for the position of mayor. The announcement came shortly after his resignation as Member of Parliament for Vaughan. He defeated controversial incumbent Linda Jackson, the former mayor who was still facing charges from election finance irregularities stemming from her 2006 mayoral victory. Bevilacqua was re-elected mayor of Vaughan in

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

and again in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

, both times with greater than seventy percent of the vote. On June 1st, 2022 Bevilacqua announced he would not be seeking re-election in the

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

election and subsequently endorsed Steven Del Duca to succeed him.

References

External links

Official site

How'd They Vote?: Maurizio Bevilacqua's voting history and quotes
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bevilacqua, Maurizio 1960 births Italian emigrants to Canada Liberal Party of Canada MPs Living people Members of the 26th Canadian Ministry Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada People from Sulmona Liberal Party of Canada leadership candidates York University alumni Mayors of Vaughan