Giorgio Mammoliti’s most memorable gaffes, including the one that could end his political career
Although Giorgio Mammoliti leapt from Rob Ford’s lurching bandwagon in November, the two city hall fixtures still have a lot in common. Messy campaign finances, for instance. According to an audit released Friday afternoon, Mammoliti blew past the authorized campaign spending limit of $27,464.65 by a not-insignificant $12,000. If an audit committee decides to initiate legal proceedings on Feb. 4, the shaky math could cost Mammoliti a fine, some jail time or even ejection from office (another experience over which he and Ford could commiserate). In other words, his latest goof could be the end of Mammoliti’s run as a councillor, a 15-year career we honour below with a roundup of his most bone-headed comments and off-the-wall antics.
He goes shirtless at city hall In 1999, to protest against the nude beach at Hanlan’s Point, Mammoliti stripped to his pants and a gold chain in council chambers, which only sort of illustrated his argument that “today, it’s a secluded beach, tomorrow it will be the beachfront and then it will be the streets.”
In 2000, Mammoliti used his office budget to buy cat traps to help constituents plagued by poop on their lawns. This, of course, was long before he buddied up with the Ford brothers and learned to tighten his belt.
He thinks Toronto needs more guns During Mammoliti’s brief, disastrous mayoral run in 2010, he was widely mocked for suggesting the city’s bylaw officers—the men and women responsible for policing graffiti and licensing, among other things—should carry guns and be allowed to arrest people.
Mammoliti’s arguments in favour of regulating and taxing brothels took a weird turn in March 2011 when he proposed a red-light district on the Toronto Islands. And then proposed it again a year later.
The councillor hit the June 2011 Dyke March with a hand-held video camera, but not to film the marchers’ sometimes revealing outfits. He was just making good on a threat to document the rumoured presence of politically-motivated groups, such as Dykes and Trans People for Palestine.
He sniffs out commies In August, 2011, Mammoliti created a Facebook Page to allow the public to comment on the disbursement of city funds. However, Mammo cautioned that if, when monitoring responses, “I get a smell of communism, they’re off the page,” explaining “only Mammoliti has that keen sense of smell.” A spidey-sense he presumably honed during his stints as a union leader and NDP MPP.
Mammo almost got into a physical fight with fellow councillor Gord Perks last October, after Perks got in his face for accusing the city ombudsman of being politically motivated. Mammoliti later promised that had Perks touched him, “I would have kicked him in the nuts and the face at the same time.”
(Images: Giorgio Mammoliti, Christopher Drost; cat, Brett McBain; red light district, Bruce Tuten; Mammoliti with camera, Twitter; Mammoliti with Gord Perks, YouTube)
NEVER MISS A TORONTO LIFE STORY
Sign up for This City, our free newsletter about everything that matters right now in Toronto politics, sports, business, culture, society and more.
