Mario Racco

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Mario G. Racco
In office 2003 – 2007
Preceded by	Tina Molinari
Succeeded by	Peter Shurman

Born	1955 Italy
Political party	Liberal
Residence	Thornhill, Ontario
Profession	Chartered Accountant

Mario G. Racco (born 1955) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He sat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the Greater Toronto Area riding of Thornhill for the Liberal Party from 2003 to 2007.

Racco has degrees in Business Administration from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (1977) and York University. He also received a Bachelor of Arts degree from York University in 1992. Racco has practiced as a Chartered Accountant, for the firms of Thorne Riddell and Dunwoody Chartered Accountants.

Racco was elected to the city council of Vaughan, Ontario in 1982, and retained this position until his election to the Ontario legislature. He ran for the federal Liberal nomination in Markham—Whitchurch—Stouffville in 1993, but lost to Jag Bhaduria under controversial circumstances.

In the 2003 provincial election, Racco defeated Susan Kadis for the Liberal nomination in Thornhill and ran against Tina Molinari, an incumbent from the Progressive Conservatives. Denominational education was a leading issue in this campaign, with Molinari supporting the extension of tax credits for religious education and Racco opposing it; some members of Thornhill's Orthodox Jewish community supported Molinari because of this issue. Racco eventually won by 796 votes.

Racco is a leading supporter of allowing municipalities to use red light camera technology for safety purposes. In 2004, he was the driving force behind the construction of a new statue of Pierre Trudeau in Vaughan.^[1]

During the provincial election of 2007, Racco was defeated by Progressive Conservative candidate Peter Shurman. In one of the most hotly contested races in the province, Shurman came out with about 1500 votes more than Racco.

He is married to Sandra Yeung Racco, a city councillor for the city of Vaughan for Ward 4 (formerly held by her husband for 6 terms). They have two children: Alexander and Katrina.