Tempers flare, zingers fly at Woodbridge West municipal election debate

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 24, 2014
By Adam Martin-Robbins

A fired-up crowd packed a small meeting room at the Woodbridge Library Thursday night to watch five candidates vying to represent Woodbridge West on city council debate issues ranging from development to taxes and traffic gridlock to accessibility improvements for people with disabilities.

Incumbent Tony Carella squared off for about two hours against challengers Frank Miele, Nick Pinto, Marco Villella and Adriano Volpentesta at the debate hosted by the newly formed Village of Woodbridge Ratepayers Association.

Vaughan Citizen editor Kim Champion served as moderator - and things got heated at times.

Carella bore the brunt of the attacks from the other candidates and more than a few audience members, who turned out to be the source of much of the evening’s fireworks.

For instance, during Miele’s response of how to solve traffic congestion on Hwy. 7, one man yelled out: “Just get rid of the bridge on No. 7 highway, where the railway track is, that’s where the bottleneck is.”

Carella, a longtime councillor, agreed and said after the election he would start a petition aimed at getting Vaughan MP Julian Fantino to try to force the federal government, which is heading into an election next year, to deal with the issue since it has jurisdiction over railways.

Daniel Salvatore, a former aide to Fantino, later jumped on that response.

“For three years I worked in Julian Fantino’s office, ...and never once did you or any of your staff proactively approach our office to benefit our community,” he said. “As a member of the VCHC (Vaughan Community Health Centre), you walked by our office and never came to say hello and now you’re saying next year there’s a federal election and things are going to change. What would you do to improve the relations with municipal, regional, provincial and federal (governments)? And why should we believe what you say?”

That was just one of many confrontational exchanges between audience members and the candidates.

As the evening progressed, the inside temperature grew hot and so did a few people’s tempers.

Two audience members who didn’t get a chance to ask questions as the debate was winding down, began shouting and insisted on being allowed to speak.

When they finally got their chance, they both went straight at Carella.

During their turns at the microphone, Pinto and Miele spent a great deal of time criticizing current and past councils, accusing them of poor planning and financial mismanagement, repeatedly referencing the over-budget city hall and the $2.4 million allegedly lost due to fraud by a city employee.

But it was Miele who got off the best zinger of the night.

During an exchange about trying to attract small businesses to the Woodbridge village core, Carella began talking about parking issues and said: ”There are solutions at hand, but we have to start re-thinking, thinking in a different way about how we’re going to solve those problems.”

“I think what the councillor is saying is we need new ideas and fresh blood. Thank you,” Miele responded to hearty applause.