Mario Gentile

Mario Gentile is a former municipal politician in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He served as a councillor and city controller in North York, and was also a member of the Metropolitan Toronto council. His political career ended with a criminal conviction in 1994.

Gentile was born in Apulia, in the south east of Italy, and moved to Canada as a young adult. After his arrival there he worked as a welder before moving into selling insurance, building up a strong network of clients in the Italian-Canadian community. He left the insurance business in 1979 to open a travel agency.

Gentile was elected to represent North York's second ward in 1976, following a failed bid in 1974. He was the first person of Italian-Canadian background to serve on the North York council. He also received an appointment to the Metro Toronto council in 1980, after an unsuccessful attempt in 1978. He remained a ward councillor in North York until early 1988, when he was appointed to replace the late Esther Shiner on the city's Board of Control. He was also re-appointed to Metro in 1982 and 1985. Gentile sought election to the Metro Board of Police Commissioners in December 1984, but lost to Art Eggleton. He later served as chairman of the Metro works committee.

Gentile was affiliated with the Liberal Party and the Progressive Conservative Party at different times in his career. He announced his intention to seek the Progressive Conservative nomination in Downsview for the 1985 provincial election, but withdrew before nomination day.

Gentile was generally on the right-wing of council. He was one of only three North York councillors to oppose a resolution which called for a boycott of South Africa for its apartheid policies in 1986, arguing that the measure was beyond the scope of a municipal council. He later opposed efforts to make municipal titles gender-neutral, and said that he still wanted to be recognized as an "alderman" when his title was formally changed to "councillor". He was a vocal critic of Sunday shopping extensions in 1988. Like Esther Shiner, whom he replaced on the Board of Control, Gentile supported extending the Spadina Expressway into downtown Toronto.

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