Larry Di Ianni

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Mayor of Hamilton, Ontario
Larry Di Ianni

In office 2000 – 2003
Preceded by	Robert E. Wade
Succeeded by	Fred Eisenberger

Born	1948
Political party	Liberal Party of Canada
Spouse	Ginetta (Janet) Paolone

Larry Di Ianni is the former mayor of Hamilton, Ontario, and currently the nominated Liberal Party candidate for the Canadian House of Commons in the riding of Hamilton East—Stoney Creek for the forthcoming 40th Canadian federal election.^[1] Di Ianni immigrated to Canada from Italy as a young boy. Di Ianni has previously worked as a high school teacher and principal. He has been married to wife Janet for 34 years and they have three children, Robert, Paul and Stephanie.

[edit] Political History

Di Ianni was first elected to Stoney Creek city council in 1982, where he served until the 2000 amalgamation of Stoney Creek into Hamilton. He then served as a Hamilton councillor until November 2003. When Bob Wade chose to retire from politics De Ianni ran for mayor. He defeated former provincial NDP cabinet minister David Christopherson in that year’s mayoral election (52% to 39%)^[2].

Di Ianni's major policies included the completion of the controversial Red Hill Expressway, business tax reduction, airport development ^[3], improving relations among the amalgamated municipalities,^{[citation needed]} and obtaining additional social service funding from the more senior levels of government.

He lost the 2006 Mayoral election to Fred Eisenberger by only 452 (0.5%) votes.^[4]

[edit] Electoral Misconduct

On July 10, 2006 Di Ianni was charged under the Provincial Offences Act of Ontario for violating the Municipal Elections Act of Ontario.^[5] On August 24, 2006, he became the first Ontario Mayor to be convicted of violating the Act pleading guilty to six charges related to accepting excessive and 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. A further 35 charges were withdrawn by the prosecutor.