Mario Racco
Mario G. Racco (born in
1955) is a
politician in
Ontario,
Canada. He is currently a member of the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the
Greater Toronto Area riding of
Thornhill for the
Liberal Party.
Racco has degrees in Business Administration from
Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (
1977) and
York University. He also received a
Bachelor of Arts degree from
York University in
1992. Racco has practiced as a
Chartered Accountant, for the firms of
Thorne Riddell and
Dunwoody Chartered Accountants.
Racco was elected to the city council of
Vaughan, Ontario in
1982, and retained this position until his election to the Ontario legislature. He ran for the federal
Liberal nomination in
Markhamâ€"Whitchurchâ€"Stouffville in
1993, but lost to
Jag Bhaduria under controversial circumstances.
In the
2003 provincial election, Racco defeated
Susan Kadis for the Liberal nomination in Thornhill and ran against
Tina Molinari, an incumbent from the
Progressive Conservatives. Denominational education was a leading issue in this campaign, with Molinari supporting tax credits for non-Catholic religious education and Racco opposing it; some prominent members of Thornhill's
Orthodox Jewish community supported Molinari because of this issue. Racco eventually won by 796 votes, a narrower margin of victory than most Liberal candidates achieved in neighbouring ridings.
Racco is a leading supporter of allowing municipalities to use red light camera technology for safety purposes. In
2004, he was the driving force behind the construction of a new statue of
Pierre Trudeau in Vaughan.
He is married to
Sandra Yeung Racco, a city councillor for the city of Vaughan. They have two children: Alexander and Katrina.
