Maria Augimeri
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Maria Augimeri (born in Italy) is a city councillor in Toronto, Ontario for Ward 9 York Centre (representing one of the two York Centre wards).
Augimeri moved to Canada with her family at age two. Before entering politics, she was a Social Anthropologist at York University. An Italian-Canadian, she has written three books on the Italian-Canadian community and is also a published poet.
She first entered politics as a school trustee, and was elected to the city council of North York in 1985. A left-leaning member of the council, she ran for the Ontario New Democratic Party in the 1987 provincial election in the riding of Downsview. (Her husband, Odoardo Di Santo, had held the riding for ten years before losing it in the 1985 election.) In very a close race, she lost to Liberal Laureano Leone by only 174 votes.
Augimeri was elected to the Metro Toronto council in 1988, and remained on that council until the creation of the new city of Toronto in 1997. She has been elected to the new city council three times. She is known for promoting environmental awareness and cultural issues.
She was endorsed for re-election by the centre-left Toronto Star newspaper in 2003, although the Star also accused her of "hypocrisy in fighting housing for homeless youth, despite her New Democratic Party roots."[1] Augimeri had previously introduced measures which held up a housing construction project. The left-leaning Now Magazine also gave her a tepid endorsement in 2000, describing her as a "do-nothing councillor", but also claiming she was better than the opposition.[2]
Augimeri considered running for the federal New Democratic Party in York Centre in the 2004 federal election, but ultimately declined.
On November 21, 2006 Toronto's integrity commissioner "tentatively reached the conclusion" that Councillor Maria Augimeri had committed discreditable conduct over voicemail comments she made about Councillor Peter Li Preti. Augimeri said on the tape that Li Preti, first elected in 1985, was unsuitable to be a councillor and alleged he was "being actively investigated by police." [3]
