Joe Fratesi is the former mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 and current chief administrative officer

Chief administrative officer

A chief administrative officer is responsible for administrative management of private, public or governmental corporations. The CAO is one of the highest ranking members of an organization, managing daily operations and usually reporting directly to the chief executive officer. In some companies,...

 of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Sault Ste. Marie is a city on the St. Marys River in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, with a population of 74,948. The community was founded as a French religious mission: Sault either means "jump" or "rapids" in...

. Serving as Sault Ste. Marie's mayor from 1986 to 1996, he was the longest serving mayor in Sault Ste. Marie's history, breaking the record that W. John McMeeken had held since 1945.

On January 29, 1990, during his term as mayor, the city council approved a resolution

Sault Ste. Marie language resolution

The Sault Ste. Marie language resolution was a government motion passed on January 29, 1990 by Sault Ste. Marie City Council, the governing body of the city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, which resolved that English was the sole working language of city government...

 making English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 the sole working language of city government. The council's decision, which Fratesi had strongly supported, caused controversy within the town and across Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. He was re-elected by a landslide in 1991, although many prominent politicians, such as Bob Rae

Bob Rae

Robert Keith "Bob" Rae, PC, OC, OOnt, QC, MP is a Canadian politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....

 and Brian Mulroney

Brian Mulroney

Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...

, refused to meet with Fratesi on unrelated matters due to his stance.

He was involved in a conflict of interest

Conflict of interest

A conflict of interest occurs when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other....

 controversy in 1995 when he applied for the post of chief administrative officer while still sitting as mayor. After stepping down as mayor, he was briefly replaced by Michael Sanzosti before former MP Steve Butland

Steve Butland

Steve Butland is a Canadian politician. He represented the Sault Ste. Marie electoral district in the Canadian House of Commons from 1988 to 1993 as a member of the New Democratic Party. Before entering politics, Butland served as principal at St...

was elected in a special 1996 byelection.