Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti will seek the nomination to run for the Ontario Progressive Conservative party in Brampton.

Mammoliti, an outspoken and frequently controversial politician who counts few friends on council after holding elected office for a quarter century, will try to make the jump back to Queen’s Park after he was first elected as an NDP MPP in the old Yorkview riding.

“I think I’m better served being who I am in changing a much larger kind of government to make sure that the smaller governments are doing the right things,” said Mammoliti, who made the announcement Tuesday live on AM640 with reporters crowded into the Queens Quay studio.

Read more:

Doug Ford heads into first caucus meeting unsure if a PC government would run a deficit

PC Leader Doug Ford promises to scrap the Liberals sex-ed curriculum

Opinion | Edward Keenan: Toronto councillors are letting the serious stuff slide as they run down the clock to the fall election

Newly-elected PC party leader Doug Ford, who served alongside Mammoliti as a one-term councillor, asked him to consider running for mayor of Toronto or as an MPP, Mammoliti said.

“I’ve been so loyal to the Fords that I’m going to go down there and I’m going to do my best.”

Mammoliti said he did not discuss a potential cabinet seat with Ford if the party won a majority.

Brampton Centre is a new riding in this provincial election. The Liberals have yet to nominate a candidate. Harjit Jaswal, who came second to now federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh in the 2014 Bramlea-Gore-Malton provincial race, is also seeking the Brampton Centre seat for the PC party.

At city hall, Mammoliti had been an ally of former mayor Rob Ford, Doug’s brother, during a chaotic term and an enemy of Mayor John Tory. He has sat in the coveted council chamber chair directly next to that of the mayor for eight years, causing a scene this term when it was suggested deputy mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong might want to sit next to Tory.

Mammoliti says he plans to keep his council seat, but not collect his salary, and will run again for council if he loses provincially. He would not say whether he would run for mayor or as a councillor if he returns to the municipal election.

Saying he currently lives in his Toronto ward, he plans to move to Brampton if he wins the seat.

Mammoliti became a North York councillor in 1995 and was elected to the amalgamated city every election since.

His career has been characterized by controversy.

As an MPP, Mammoliti billed taxpayers more than $14,000 for nearly 50,000 kilometres in mileage for travelling to and from Queen’s Park and within his riding, 1991 to 1992 expense reports revealed.

At the time Richard Brennan, then writing for the Windsor Star, reported that at 29 cents a kilometre — and assuming Mammoliti drove at an average 40 km/h — the then-MPP would have been driving nearly three-and-half-hours every day of the year.

As a councillor, Mammoliti has often been in trouble with the city watchdog monitoring council conduct and has frequently missed meetings.

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti gave one of his most memorable speeches in a debate on a bid to host the 2008 Olympics. At one point in the speech he encouraged his colleagues, appearing to read from notes on his desk in from of him, to “stop riding the miserable, old donkey of doom and gloom . . . and get on the strong, muscular thoroughbred horse of hope.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

In 2013, the CBC revealed Mammoliti and another councillor, David Shiner, were getting rent breaks on apartments owned by developers that do business with the city. Mammoliti called the story inaccurate. Neither councillor faced penalties.

In 2014, the councillor was docked 90 days’ pay after then-integrity commissioner Janet Leiper found he had improperly accepted $80,000 from a cash fundraiser thrown for him by his own staff.

The punishment was the most council was allowed to enforce under city rules. Mammoliti lost $26,000 in pay, resulting in more than $50,000 profit from the illegal fundraiser. An investigation by Toronto Police’s financial crimes unit did not result in charges. A reporter has repeatedly asked police spokesperson Mark Pugash for an update and has not received one.

Last year, the Star reported the auditor general halted a $12-million land deal in Mammoliti’s ward after concerns were brought to her by Councillor John Filion that the sale price had been inflated. Toronto Parking Authority executives involved in the cancelled deal have been suspended with pay, and the Ontario Provincial Police is now investigating.

Mammoliti, who was a member of the Toronto Parking Authority board before it was taken over by senior city staff during an internal investigation, had been pushing for the creation of a giant flagpole and park on the plot of land in question. The auditor general, in a report, wrote the councillor was involved in the recent land deal deliberations.

No charges have been laid, and investigations are ongoing.

Mammoliti refused to comment on the ongoing investigations Tuesday and suggested integrity commissioner investigations unfairly target “Conservative” councillors.

As both an MPP and councillor, Mammoliti has taken many controversial positions. In 1994, speaking in the legislature, he went on a homophobic rant against the rights of same-sex couples by stoking fears they are AIDS-spreading sexual deviants. In 1999, he famously went shirtless in the council chamber to protest a nude beach on Toronto Island, then in 2012 suggested the island should become a red light district for brothels and prostitution. He removed basketball nets from a low-income area in his ward in 2008, claiming the outdoor court had become a draw for drug dealers. In 2014, he called Parkdale a “pedophile district.”

In a lighthearted moment during the council debate on a bid to host the 2008 Olympics, Mammoliti gave one of his most memorable speeches. He encouraged his colleagues, appearing to read from notes on his desk in from of him, to “stop riding the miserable, old donkey of doom and gloom... and get on the strong, muscular thoroughbred horse of hope.”

Mammoliti is frequently criticized for being absent from council. In 2017, he missed half of all recorded votes in the chamber, according to a Star analysis.

The councillor told the Star it didn’t really matter if he was there or not.

“Vote or no vote, it makes no difference under this administration,” he said then in an email, asserting his time was “better placed working directly with residents.”

A 2014 profile found voters in Mammoliti’s North York ward were often unaware of his antics down at city hall, citing park improvements and other ward fixes that appeared just before the election.

He won with 46 per cent of the vote.

Read more about: