Gino Matrundola

Background

Matrundola was born in Cassino, Italy and immigrated to Canada in the 1960s, after a brief stay in Scotland.

Education

He was educated at the Italian Polytechnical School in Rome, Italy, and Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto.

Career

He represented the riding of Willowdale. He was licensed as a real estate agent in North York, Ontario in 1964, and eventually founded his own realty company. The election resulted in David Peterson"s Liberals forming a minority government.

Matrundola was elected in the newly created riding of Willowdale, which incorporated much of Armourdale, defeating Progressive Conservative candidate Charles Harnick.

Matrundola served as a backbench supporter of the David Peterson government. He was appointed Deputy Government Whip in 1989.

Peterson called an early election in 1990 which resulted in the Liberals being upset by the New Democratic Party. In Willowdale, Matrundola lost to Harnick by 834 votes, marking one of the few gains by Mike Harris"s Tories in this election.

Matrundola attempted a political comeback but was defeated for the provincial Liberal nomination for the 1995 provincial election by Les Scheininger.

Matrundola returned to running his real estate firm full-time and remains an active Liberal.

Achievements

• Matrundola won the Ontario Liberal Party nomination in the riding of Armourdale for the 1985 Ontario election, but lost the election to Progressive Conservative incumbent Bruce McCaffrey by 212 votes. When the province returned to the polls in 1987, the Liberals won a majority government.

Membership

He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1987 to 1990. He became an active member of both the Ontario Liberal Party and the Liberal Party of Canada.