Bevilacqua is in for Vaughan mayoral race, is Fantino next?

Aug. 27, 2014
yorkregion.com
By Adam Martin-Robbins

Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua is set to put to rest all of the speculation about his future in municipal politics, The Vaughan Citizen has learned.

The 54-year-old veteran politician will register as a mayoral candidate in the upcoming election Wednesday, Sept. 10 at noon, just two days before the nomination period ends.

Bevilacqua, who served as a Liberal MP for 22 years before making the jump to municipal politics in 2010, has long said he believes the focus should be on governing rather than the election race - hence his decision to wait until the last minute to register. (Candidates were allowed to file their nomination papers starting Jan. 2.)

The fact he held off on registering for so long has fuelled speculation about Bevilacqua’s plans for the future, including that he may be considering a return to federal politics or that he may take a shot at the regional chair seat being vacated by Bill Fisch.

Currently, there is only one registered mayoral candidate, newcomer Daniel DeVito.

But there’s been a lot of chatter about Veterans Affairs Minister and Vaughan Conservative MP Julian Fantino taking a run at the mayor’s chair.

And he hasn’t completely ruled it out.

Fantino, in an interview with The Citizen late last month, said he will run for the Conservative nomination in the new Vaughan-Woodbridge riding before the 2015 federal election. But he also made it clear nothing is certain when it comes to his future.

“There have been polls. I get all kinds of urging (to run for mayor). I just want you to know as I speak to you today, this is where I am, this is where I plan to stay. But I can’t tell you what’s going to come,” Fantino said. “You go to the doctor and they tell you everything’s OK, but I can’t give you any guarantees about tomorrow.”

The former top cop is popular locally, but he’s had a bit of a rough ride since taking over from Bevilacqua as Vaughan’s MP following a slim by-election victory in November 2010.

Fantino has served in four different ministerial posts in less than four years and has courted controversy along the way.

He started out as Minister of State for Seniors, but was appointed Associate Minister of National Defence a few months later. In that role, opposition parties hammered him over the ballooning price tag for the proposed purchase of F-35 fighter jets.

Then, in 2012, Fantino was appointed Minister of International Cooperation where he drew heavy criticism for remarks he made about aid funding for earthquake-ravaged Haiti, among other things.

Since being shuffled to veterans affairs in 2013, Fantino has been engaged in a heated battle with Canada’s injured war vets over their disability pensions and the closure of several Veterans Affairs offices that served them.

As a result, veterans across the country are vowing to launch an anti-Conservative campaign during next year’s election.

Bevilacqua’s time at the helm of Vaughan city council, meanwhile, has been relatively free from controversy - especially compared to his predecessor, former mayor Linda Jackson, whom he bested by 35,000 votes in 2010.

He did, however, take a lot of heat for backing a proposed casino in the city’s emerging downtown, near Jane Street and Hwy. 7.

And then there was the $17-million the city agreed to pay Maystar General Contractors and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects to settle lawsuits regarding the new city hall that ran $15.6-million over budget.

More recently, there was the alleged $2.4-million fraud carried out by a former city employee that police say went on over a 13-year period, but the city says it has recouped about $2.2 million of that through insurance.

During his tenure, Bevilacqua also oversaw a major shake-up of senior city staff that resulted in the departure of several top bureaucrats, including the city manager, commissioner of planning, city solicitor, commissioner of planning and director of corporate communications.

Vaughan residents go to the polls to vote for a mayor, five local ward councillors and three local and regional councillors, as well as school board trustees, Oct. 27.