Tito-Dante Marimpietri will be sworn in as the 35th mayor of Oshawa next Monday, Nov. 16, after serving on Oshawa’s city council for 23 years as a councillor.
Marimpietri won by 6,461 votes to runner up Jim Lee in a pool of nine candidates. Just under 41,000 people out of 151,269 eligible voters cast a ballot.
“To lead your hometown is something that is kind of a dream come true but also a responsibility that has huge weight,” said Marimpietri.
His campaign highlighted seven priorities of action.
- Restore safety and confidence in Oshawa’s downtown and neighbourhoods.
- Attract and secure more jobs and economic prosperity.
- Focus on affordability and accountability.
- Convey downtown as a family friendly business destination.
- Protect Oshawa neighbourhoods while building more quality housing.
- Prioritize infrastructure and quality of life for citizens.
- Hold Oshawa’s city hall leadership accountable.
“I’ve been working to ready myself and the city in different aspects to be able to activate transformational change,” said Marimpietri
The city’s biggest challenge is its presence, going forward he wants Oshawa to be developed and represented as “one proper historic respected and revered Oshawa that we can all be proud of,” he said.
Oshawa is home to four post-secondary intuitions: Durham College, Trent University, Ontario Tech University and Queen’s University’s Lakeridge MD Family Medicine program.
When it comes students in Oshawa, Marimpietri said he hopes “to be able to work with them and for them in a capacity that helps secure opportunity but also ensures you know, they really feel welcome and want to stay here and see it as a metropolitan city, a proper city.”
After speaking with his oldest daughter, Martina Marimpietri, his goal going forward as mayor is to “lead with love and light,” setting a blueprint for Canada.
“I wanted to see this as something that was a ‘we,’ an ‘our,’ an ‘us’ movement and mission,” said Marimpietri. “A stronger Oshawa is a stronger Canada.”
His first course of action is to host the city’s first public inauguration. This is the first step in “working together and doing it in a way that is inclusive,” said Marimpietri.
The inauguration will take place at Tribute Communities Center in Oshawa at 9:30 a.m. on Monday.
The meeting will also be televised on Rogers TV Durham and streamed on the city’s website.