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Alfonso Gagliano, PC, FCGA (born January 25, 1942) is a Canadian accountant and a former Liberal Party politician.

Born in Siculiana, Italy, his political career began in 1977 when he ran for a seat on the Montreal school board. In the 1984 federal election, he ran for Parliament for Saint-Léonard—Anjou narrowly defeating the Progressive Conservative candidate. It was one of the few ridings that the Liberals retained, as they were swept out of power in a massive Conservative landslide. He was re-elected in the 1988 and 1993 elections representing Saint-Léonard, and in the 1997 and 2000 elections representing Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel.

Alfonso began his own family in 1965. In 1965, Alfonso married Ersilia Gidaro and with her bore three children; Vincenzo, Maria and Immacolata.

From 1996 to 2002, he served in various cabinet posts including Minister of Labour, Deputy House leader and the Minister responsible for Communications Canada, Canada Post, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the Royal Canadian Mint and Canada Lands Company Ltd. His most controversial positions were as Minister of Public Works and Government Services and as political minister for Quebec.

Following his career as a cabinet minister, Gagliano was appointed as the Canadian ambassador to Denmark. However, he was dismissed from this position on February 10, 2004 by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, on the advice of Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham, amidst widespread speculation that during his time as public works minister he was actively involved in the sponsorship scandal.^[1]

On May 27, 2004, Gagliano filed a more than $4.5-million lawsuit against Prime Minister Paul Martin and the government. The suit accuses them of deliberately attacking Gagliano's reputation and alleges that he was illegally and unjustly fired. He is asking for compensation for wrongful dismissal, damage to his reputation and lost income.^[2]

Justice John Gomery's initial report on the sponsorship scandal places much of the blame on Gagliano, making him the highest ranking Liberal to be charged with deliberate dishonesty, rather than negligence. Following the initial report, Paul Martin expelled him from the Liberal Party for life.

On November 17, 2004, an article in the New York Daily News alleged that Gagliano was associated with the Bonanno organized crime family. In the article, former capo Frank Lino, now an informer for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, is quoted as saying Gagliano was introduced to him during a meeting with other mob members in Montreal. Gagliano has strongly denied the allegations. It is not the first time Gagliano's name has been linked to organized crime. In 1994, La Presse reported that Gagliano was the bookkeeper for Agostino Cuntrera, cousin of cocaine baron Alfonso Caruana, who was involved in a gangland slaying of Paul Violi in Montreal in 1978. Cuntrera was subsequently convicted of murder.^[3] Gagliano denies any links to the Mafia.^[4] Gagliano now resides with his family on a vineyard in Dunham, Quebec and winters in Florida since 2006, and no further charges have been brought against him. (CanWest News Service, October 2006, 2007)

Recently, he has argued that Liberal leadership candidate Joe Volpe is the victim of the same kind of anti-Italian sentiment that ended his own political career. ^[5]

References and Sources

• The Rothschilds of the Mafia on Aruba, by Tom Blickman, Transnational Organized Crime, Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer 1997
• 'They have to stop dirtying my name,' says Gagliano The Hill Times, November 22, 2004

References

External links

• Synopsis of federal political experience from the Library of Parliament