Vittorio Capparelli
Encyclopedia
Vittorio Capparelli is a politician in Montreal
, Quebec
, Canada
. He served on the Montreal city council
from 1986 to 1998 and was a member of the Montreal executive committee
(i.e., the municipal cabinet) from 1994 to 1996.
and moved to Canada in 1967. He was initially a lathe
operator and later became the administrator of Patronat INCA, a group providing services for Quebec workers of Italian origin.
Capparelli first ran for city council in 1982 municipal election
as a candidate of the progressive Montreal Citizens' Movement
(MCM) and finished second to Civic Party
incumbent George Savoidakis
in the Jean-Talon ward. He ran a second time in 1986
and defeated Civic Party incumbent Marc Beaudoin
in the Gabriel-Sagard ward. The MCM won a landslide victory in this election under mayoral candidate
Jean Doré
, and Capparelli served as a backbench supporter of Doré's administration for the next four years. He was re-elected in the 1990 election
in the redistributed ward of François-Perrault over fellow incumbent Frank Venneri
, a former MCM member who had joined the opposition Municipal Party.
Capparelli became increasingly critical of Doré's administration in the early 1990s. In November 1991, he was the only MCM councillor to support an opposition initiative that would have diverted money from paving de la Commune Street in Old Montreal
to improving the state of the city's playgrounds. He also voiced objections about the MCM's 1991 budget, and he openly criticized his party in the media several times in early 1992. Other MCM councillors were also critical of the party's direction in the same period.
Capparelli re-confirmed his support for the MCM in September 1992 after Doré promised to address the concerns of party dissidents. The internal divisions continued, however, and in 1993 Capparelli voted against an MCM initiative for Montreal to lease space in the World Trade Center
, charging that the decision was made in an undemocratic fashion. He ultimately resigned from the MCM on December 20, 1993, describing the Doré administration as "incompetent" and dominated by an "omnipresent" executive committee. He also complained that party discipline rules prevented councillors from voting their conscience.
Vision Montreal
Capparelli was briefly a member of Claude Beauchamp
's Action Montreal
party from March to April 1994. The party was not recognized on council, and Capparelli technically remained an independent in this period.
Beauchamp dissolved Action Montreal in April 1994 to support the Vision Montreal
group that was then coalescing under Pierre Bourque
's leadership. Capparelli joined Vision Montreal in September 1994 and was re-elected under its banner in the 1994 municipal election
. Bourque defeated Doré in this election to become Montreal's mayor, and Vision Montreal won a significant majority on council; in November 1994, Bourque appointed Capparelli to the executive committee with responsibility for income security and social issues.
Capparelli indicated his opposition to affirmative action
programs in a media interview in February 1995. He clarified that he was not speaking on behalf of Bourque's administration.
Bourque removed Capparelli from the executive committee on October 4, 1996, and re-assigned him as assistant to committee chair Noushig Eloyan
. Capparelli sought a court injunction to reverse his demotion, arguing that the mayor did not have the legal right to remove him from the executive. Nothing appears to have come from this. Capparelli ultimately broke with Bourque in January 1997, saying, "I no longer have confidence in the mayor. The problem is that Mr. Bourque wants to concentrate all the power at city hall in his own hand."
Capparelli was expelled from the Vision Montreal caucus on February 11, 1997, and served for a time as an independent councillor. In early 1998, he joined an informal group of opposition councillors led by Sammy Forcillo
. He later rejoined the Montreal Citizens' Movement and ran for the party in the 1998 election
; he lost to Frank Venneri, who by this time had joined Vision Montreal.
. He again lost to Venneri, who by this time had joined Gérald Tremblay
's Montreal Island Citizens Union.
Capparelli ran for borough mayor of Saint-Leonard in 2009
and finished a distant second against Union Montreal
incumbent Michel Bissonnet
.
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, 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 served on the Montreal city council
Montreal City Council
The Montreal City Council is the governing body of Montreal, Quebec. The head of the city government in Montreal is the mayor, who is first among equals in the City Council. The mayor is Gérald Tremblay, who is a member of the Union des citoyens et des citoyennes de l'Île de Montréal...
from 1986 to 1998 and was a member of the Montreal executive committee
Montreal Executive Committee
The Montreal Executive Committee is the executive branch of the municipal government of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The committee reports directly to city hall and is responsible for generating documents such as budgets and by-laws, which are then sent to the Montreal city council for approval...
(i.e., the municipal cabinet) from 1994 to 1996.
Early life and career
Capparelli was born in ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and moved to Canada in 1967. He was initially a lathe
Lathe
A lathe is a machine tool which rotates the workpiece on its axis to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, or deformation with tools that are applied to the workpiece to create an object which has symmetry about an axis of rotation.Lathes are used in woodturning,...
operator and later became the administrator of Patronat INCA, a group providing services for Quebec workers of Italian origin.
City councillor
Montreal Citizens' MovementCapparelli first ran for city council in 1982 municipal election
Montreal municipal election, 1982
The 1982 Montreal municipal election took place on November 14, 1982, to elect a mayor and city councillors in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Longtime mayor Jean Drapeau was re-elected for what turned out to be his final term in office, defeating challenger Jean Doré.Elections were also held in...
as a candidate of the progressive Montreal Citizens' Movement
Montreal Citizens' Movement
The Montreal Citizens' Movement was a municipal political party in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It existed from 1973 to 2001.-Origins:...
(MCM) and finished second to Civic Party
Civic Party of Montreal
The Civic Party of Montreal was a municipal political party in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It existed from 1960 to 1994. Throughout its history the Civic Party was dominated by the personality of its leader Jean Drapeau.-Origins:...
incumbent George Savoidakis
George Savoidakis
George Savoidakis was a politician in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He served on the Montreal city council from 1978 to 1986, representing the Parc-Extension ward as a member of mayor Jean Drapeau's Civic Party of Montreal....
in the Jean-Talon ward. He ran a second time in 1986
Montreal municipal election, 1986
The 1986 Montreal municipal election took place on November 9, 1978, to elect a mayor and city councillors in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Longtime mayor Jean Drapeau did not seek re-election, and Jean Doré from the opposition Montreal Citizens' Movement was elected to the position by a significant...
and defeated Civic Party incumbent Marc Beaudoin
Marc Beaudoin
Marc Beaudoin is a judge and former politician in the Canadian province of Quebec. He served on the Montreal city council from 1978 to 1986 as a member of mayor Jean Drapeau's Civic Party and was a member of the Montreal executive committee...
in the Gabriel-Sagard ward. The MCM won a landslide victory in this election under mayoral candidate
Mayor of Montreal
The Mayor of Montreal is head of the executive branch of Montreal City Council.The Mayor's office administers all city services, public property, police and fire protection, most public agencies, and enforces all city and provincial laws within Montreal....
Jean Doré
Jean Doré
Jean Doré is a Canadian politician and former mayor of the City of Montreal, Quebec.-Background:Jean Doré studied law at the Université de Montréal, where he was president of the student union from 1967 to 1968. He received a Master's Degree of Political Science from McGill University...
, and Capparelli served as a backbench supporter of Doré's administration for the next four years. He was re-elected in the 1990 election
Montreal municipal election, 1990
The 1990 Montreal municipal election took place on November 4, 1990, to elect a mayor and city councillors in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Jean Doré was elected to a second term as mayor by a significant margin....
in the redistributed ward of François-Perrault over fellow incumbent Frank Venneri
Frank Venneri
Frank Venneri is a politician in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He served on the Montreal city council from 1986 to 1990, was re-elected in 1998, and has been returned to council in every election since then...
, a former MCM member who had joined the opposition Municipal Party.
Capparelli became increasingly critical of Doré's administration in the early 1990s. In November 1991, he was the only MCM councillor to support an opposition initiative that would have diverted money from paving de la Commune Street in Old Montreal
Old Montreal
Old Montreal is the oldest area in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, dating back to New France. Located in the borough of Ville-Marie, the area is bordered on the west by McGill St., on the north by Ruelle des Fortifications, on the east by Berri St. and on the south by the Saint Lawrence River...
to improving the state of the city's playgrounds. He also voiced objections about the MCM's 1991 budget, and he openly criticized his party in the media several times in early 1992. Other MCM councillors were also critical of the party's direction in the same period.
Capparelli re-confirmed his support for the MCM in September 1992 after Doré promised to address the concerns of party dissidents. The internal divisions continued, however, and in 1993 Capparelli voted against an MCM initiative for Montreal to lease space in the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
, charging that the decision was made in an undemocratic fashion. He ultimately resigned from the MCM on December 20, 1993, describing the Doré administration as "incompetent" and dominated by an "omnipresent" executive committee. He also complained that party discipline rules prevented councillors from voting their conscience.
Vision Montreal
Capparelli was briefly a member of Claude Beauchamp
Claude Beauchamp
Claude Beauchamp is a journalist, publisher, and political activist in the Canadian province of Quebec.-Journalist and publisher:Beauchamp began his career as a financial writer for La Presse and served as assistant publisher and editor-in-chief of Le Soleil in the late 1970s. He became president...
's Action Montreal
Action Montreal
Action Montreal was a short-lived municipal political party in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, that existed from February to April 1994 under the leadership of entrepreneur Claude Beauchamp.-Origins and platform:...
party from March to April 1994. The party was not recognized on council, and Capparelli technically remained an independent in this period.
Beauchamp dissolved Action Montreal in April 1994 to support the Vision Montreal
Vision Montreal
Vision Montreal is a municipal political party in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It has been in existence since 1994 and presently forms the Official opposition on Montreal City Council under leader Louise Harel.-Origins:...
group that was then coalescing under Pierre Bourque
Pierre Bourque
Pierre Bourque, CQ is a businessman and politician in Quebec, Canada. He founded the Vision Montreal political party and served as mayor of Montreal from 1994 to 2001.-Background:...
's leadership. Capparelli joined Vision Montreal in September 1994 and was re-elected under its banner in the 1994 municipal election
Montreal municipal election, 1994
The 1994 Montreal municipal election took place on November 6, 1994. Pierre Bourque was elected to his first term as mayor, defeating incumbent Jean Doré...
. Bourque defeated Doré in this election to become Montreal's mayor, and Vision Montreal won a significant majority on council; in November 1994, Bourque appointed Capparelli to the executive committee with responsibility for income security and social issues.
Capparelli indicated his opposition to affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
programs in a media interview in February 1995. He clarified that he was not speaking on behalf of Bourque's administration.
Bourque removed Capparelli from the executive committee on October 4, 1996, and re-assigned him as assistant to committee chair Noushig Eloyan
Noushig Eloyan
Noushig Eloyan is a Canadian politician, who served on the Montreal City Council from 1994 to 2009 and ran for the Canadian Parliament for the electoral riding of Ahuntsic in the May 2, 2011 elections as a member of the federal Liberal Party of Canada....
. Capparelli sought a court injunction to reverse his demotion, arguing that the mayor did not have the legal right to remove him from the executive. Nothing appears to have come from this. Capparelli ultimately broke with Bourque in January 1997, saying, "I no longer have confidence in the mayor. The problem is that Mr. Bourque wants to concentrate all the power at city hall in his own hand."
Capparelli was expelled from the Vision Montreal caucus on February 11, 1997, and served for a time as an independent councillor. In early 1998, he joined an informal group of opposition councillors led by Sammy Forcillo
Sammy Forcillo
Savino "Sammy" Forcillo is a Canadian politician and a City Councillor in Montreal, Quebec.-Background:He has Italian ancestry and has a degree from the École nationale d'administration publique .-Civic Party:...
. He later rejoined the Montreal Citizens' Movement and ran for the party in the 1998 election
Montreal municipal election, 1998
The city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada held municipal elections on November 1, 1998, to elect a mayor and city councillors. Pierre Bourque was returned to a second term as mayor against a divided opposition....
; he lost to Frank Venneri, who by this time had joined Vision Montreal.
Subsequent elections
Capparelli later rejoined Vision Montreal and ran for city council under its banner in the 2005 municipal electionMontreal municipal election, 2005
The 2005 Montreal municipal election was held on November 6, 2005, to elect a city mayor, borough mayors, city councillors, and borough councillors in Montreal, Quebec, Canada...
. He again lost to Venneri, who by this time had joined Gérald Tremblay
Gérald Tremblay
Gérald Tremblay is a Canadian politician and businessman currently serving his third term as mayor of Montreal and as president of the Montreal Metropolitan Community...
's Montreal Island Citizens Union.
Capparelli ran for borough mayor of Saint-Leonard in 2009
Montreal municipal election, 2009
The city of Montreal, Quebec, held a municipal election at the same time as numerous other municipalities in Quebec, on November 1, 2009. Voters elected the Mayor of Montreal, Montreal City Council, and the mayors and councils of each of the city's boroughs....
and finished a distant second against Union Montreal
Union Montreal
Union Montreal is a municipal political party in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It currently governs Montreal's city government.-Origins:It was established as the Montreal Island Citizens Union in the aftermath of the province-wide municipal merger of 2001 and not long before the municipal election...
incumbent Michel Bissonnet
Michel Bissonnet
Michel Bissonnet, MNA is a Canadian politician who served as Liberal member and President of the National Assembly of Quebec.-Background:...
.