Mario Silva
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Mario Silva, Ontario MP for Davenport
Mario Silva (born June 11, 1966) is a Canadian politician. Silva is a former a Toronto City Councillor (1994-2003) and acting mayor. He moved to federal politics, being elected for the Liberal Party of Canada in the 2004 election in the riding of Davenport.
Born in Acores, Portugal, he was first elected to city council in 1994. He was one of the more right-leaning members of city council, aligned with mayor Mel Lastman. Of Portuguese background, Silva is popular locally for his help with immigration matters.
Silva's move to federal politics was not without controversy, however, as it saw him claim the Liberal nomination in Davenport instead of popular Liberal incumbent Charles Caccia in a process that saw widespread allegations of unfairness. An ally of new Prime Minister Paul Martin, Silva was seen by the party machinery as a preferable candidate to Caccia, the longest serving Member of Parliament (MP). Caccia's leftist and strongly pro-environment views clashed with the direction in which Martin intended to move the party. Caccia had supported Sheila Copps against Martin in the 2003 Liberal Party leadership convention.
Silva signed up enough new members to likely defeat Caccia in a nomination battle; Caccia instead chose not to file to be the party's candidate, and after mulling running in the election against Silva as a Green candidate or as an Independent, announced his retirement from politics. Despite much ill-will in the riding towards the ousting of Caccia, Silva still won the traditionally Liberal seat by a convincing margin.
Silva is the second MP of Portuguese descent (the first being John Rodriguez, a former New Democratic Party MP for Nickel Belt, who is of Guyanese Portuguese decent).
Shortly after the election, Silva came out as gay in a Toronto Star profile. Ironically, it has been alleged that some of Silva's campaign workers made homophobic slurs against Silva's openly gay NDP opponent, Rui Pires, in order to sway voters to Silva, although these claims have not been proven.
External link
- Official Biography (http://www.liberal.ca/tmbio_e.aspx?id=35015)
| Preceded by: Charles Caccia | Member of Parliament for Davenport 2004- | Succeeded by: Incumbent |