Dean A. Del Mastro (born August 16, 1970) is a former Canadian politician. He represented Peterborough in the House of Commons of Canada as a member of the Conservative Party from January 23, 2006 until November 5, 2014. He resigned from parliament after being convicted of breaking the Elections Canada Act during the 2008 election. He had previously served as the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister of Canada and the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.http://www.parl.gc.ca/membersofparliament/ProfileMP.aspx?Key=170200&SubSubject=1004&Language=E Dean Del Mastro, Member of Parliament Profile (Current), accessed 02/01/2012
Early life and career Del Mastro was born to an Italian Canadian family in Peterborough, began high school in Lakefield, and graduated from the Adam Scott Collegiate and Vocational Institute. The Del Mastro family founded an automobile dealership that now sells RVs.Don Butler, "The front lines," Ottawa Citizen, 7 January 2006, B1. Del Mastro had been a supporter of the Liberal Party of Canada, but he has said he became disillusioned with the party after the 1993 federal election.Trevor Wilhem, "Ex-Liberal runs for Conservatives," Peterborough Examiner, 29 November 2005, B3.
Political career Del Mastro won the Conservative nomination for Peterborough over six other contenders in May 2005, defeating former party nominee James Jackson by only eight votes on the final ballot.The other contenders were Aaron Anderson, Darrin Langen, Paul Peterson, Alan Wilson, and Bill Hampton. See Vivian Song, "Conservatives choose political newcomer locally: 'Family man, successful entrepreneur'," Peterborough Examiner, 16 May 2005, A1. Anderson was thirty-one years old and on the right-wing of the party, and said that he ran to advance the role of Christians in politics. He was born in Peterborough but later moved to Toronto. See Rachel Punch, "Field growing for those seeking Conservative nomination in riding," Peterborough Examiner, 29 April 2005, A3. Alan Wilson has served as chair of the Peterborough Lakefield Community Police Services Board and described himself in 2005 as a centrist. See Mike Lacey, "Alan Wilson makes it five after nomination," Peterborough This Week, 29 April 2005, p .3; Rachel Punch, "Another Tory candidate steps up," Peterborough Examiner, 30 April 2005, B1. Bill Hampton was a lawyer in the Peterborough area. He was forty-three years old, described himself as "middle of the road," and favoured human rights and public health care. See "Lawyer seeks Conservative nomination," Peterborough This Week, 27 April 2005, p. 2; Elizabeth Bower, "Four-way race for nomination," Peterborough Examiner, 27 April 2005, B1. He was elected in the 2006 federal election, narrowly defeating his Liberal Party opponent. The Conservatives won a minority government in this election, and Del Mastro entered parliament as a backbench supporter of Stephen Harper's administration. He was re-elected with an increased majority in the 2008 election, as the Harper government increased its seat total but fell short of a majority.
He was appointed as parliamentary secretary to the minister of Canadian Heritage on November 7, 2008., Member of Parliament Profile (Current), Parliament of Canada, accessed 28 August 2010. According to his website, he was also the parliamentary secretary to the minister of Sport.About Dean , Dean Del Mastro, accessed 28 August 2010. He was the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister of Canada and the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.
Cultural issues After the 2006 election, Harper charged Del Mastro with coordinating the Conservative Party's outreach to Lebanese Canadian voters.Jennifer Ditchburn, "MPs set to visit Syria, Lebanon," Toronto Star, 9 August 2006, A7; Daniel LeBlanc, "Tories target specific ethnic voters," The Globe and Mail, 16 October 2007, A1. Del Mastro planned to participate in a parliamentary delegation to the Middle East organized by the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations in August 2006, during the period of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. He withdrew from the trip at the last minute, and there are conflicting reports as to the reasons for this decision.Graham Fraser and Tonda MacCharles, "Tory MP backs out of Middle East visit," Toronto Star, 16 August 2006, A12. Some charge that the Prime Minister's Office pressured him not to participate in a trip that would challenge the government's pro-Israel line, although Del Mastro denied this and cited security concerns.Mark MacKinnon, "A tour of Lebanon and harsh words for Harper," The Globe and Mail, 21 August 2006, A10; "Tory MP says he wasn't pressured to quit Mideast trip," Ottawa Citizen, 16 August 2006, A9.
Del Mastro spoke against a private member's bill introduced by Liberal Member of Parliament Massimo Pacetti in 2010 that called on the government to issue an official apology for the internment of Italian Canadians in World War II. Del Mastro argued that the bill was poorly drafted and could leave the government vulnerable to lawsuits, and said that most Italian Canadians were satisfied with an informal apology issued by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney twenty years earlier."Official apology sought for Italian Canadians," Toronto Star, 24 April 2010, A18; Gloria Galloway, "Italians seek new apology from Canada over war internment; First gesture from Mulroney deemed inadequate," The Globe and Mail, 30 April 2010, A8. The bill was approved by the House of Commons, without Conservative support."MPs vote for apology to Italian-Canadians, but Tories opposed," Canadian Press, 28 April 2010, 18:20.
Passenger rail service In 2007, Del Mastro lobbied the Harper government to reopen a passenger train service link from Peterborough to Toronto that was cut by Via Rail seventeen years earlier. He estimated that the track upgrades would cost $150 million and that the service would be used by nine hundred people daily.Jeff Gray and Steven Chase, "Flaherty's train catches his officials off guard," The Globe and Mail, 29 February 2008, A1. In February 2008, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced that his government would reopen the line. Although locally popular, this plan was widely criticized as impractical, improperly planned, and designed for political gain. Some editorials noted that the line would travel through several Conservative ridings, including Flaherty's own."Flaherty's folly" [editorial], Toronto Star, 29 February 2008, A4; "This is no way to run a railroad" [editorial], Kitchener-Waterloo Record, 1 March 2008, A14; "Flaherty's wild ride" [editorial], The Globe and Mail, 3 March 2008, A12. A confidential report by the provincial government, drafted in 2006 and made available after the controversy arose, listed the Peterborough-Toronto link in the lowest priority range for transport improvement in the Greater Toronto Area. See Patricia Best, "Flaherty's train gets derailed," The Globe and Mail, 5 March 2008, B2. A 2010 study commissioned by the provincial and federal governments estimated that capital costs for the project would run between $541 million and $1.5 billion. Del Mastro criticized these figures and accused the study's creators of bias, while acknowledging that the project would probably not move forward if assessed solely on the basis of that one report.Tess Kalinowski, "Price tag threatens Peterborough railway link," Toronto Star, 21 May 2010, GT1. In 2011, Del Mastro promised that the first passenger train would leave Peterborough on July 1, 2014. It did not.
Del Mastro has also led a non-partisan House of Commons Rail Caucus and has lobbied for a high-speed link connecting Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa.David Akin, "Ontario MP pushes for high-speed rail plan," Montreal Gazette, 8 January 2009, A8.
Social issues Del Mastro is a social conservative. In 2006, he supported an unsuccessful government motion that would have reopened the parliamentary debate on same-sex marriage (which has been legal in Canada since 2005).Janice Tibbetts, "Same-sex debate: 'Time to move on'," Ottawa Citizen, 8 December 2006, A3. He has also taken part in anti-abortion rallies on Parliament Hill, including one organized by the Campaign Life Coalition in 2007.Julie Smyth, "MPS use rally to press for abortion law," National Post, 11 May 2007, A7.
Robocall scandal Del Mastro was charged as being responsible for the Conservative response to the Robocall scandal. He has called the robocall scandal "baseless smears." He has asked Elections Canada if it had leaked details around the robocalls. Elections Canada replied such an accusation was smearing Elections Canada by indicating that details of the robocall scandal were purposefully leaked.
2008 election overspending investigation, and 2014 conviction In June 2012 Elections Canada was investigating Del Mastro for overspending during the 2008 elections. The investigation surrounds a payment of $21,000 made by a personal cheque to Ottawa-based polling firm Hollinshed Research Group for which Del Mastro was not reimbursed, exceeding his personal spending limit of $5,000. Del Mastro has insisted he has not broken any election law and claimed that the $21,000 cheque was for a riding-mapping software called GeoVote that Holienshed intended to launch, and not for telephone calls to constituents during the campaign.
In June 2013, Del Mastro, speaking in Parliament and protected from defamation law, accused Frank Hall, a witness in the Elections Canada investigation, of having "concerning details" in his background that required investigation.
Del Mastro was charged by Elections Canada with four breaches of the Elections Canada Act on September 26, 2013. The charges carried a maximum penalty of five years in jail with a $5,000 fine.
On October 31, 2014, Justice Lisa Cameron of the Ontario Court of Justice found Del Mastro guilty of violating the Canada Elections Act by overspending his elections limit and attempting to cover up the violation.R. v. Del Mastro, 2014 ONCJ 605 (Justice L. M. Cameron), online at: http://canlii.ca/t/gf9qd As a result of the convictions, Del Mastro resigned in a speech to the House of Commons on November 5, 2014. Del Mastro was scheduled to be sentenced on January 27, 2015.
During the sentencing hearing held on January 27, 2015, Dean Del Mastro's new lawyer argued that the judge should set aside the previous election overspending guilty verdicts. On February 18, 2015, Justice Cameron dismissed Del Mastro's application for a mistrial. He was scheduled to be sentenced on February 19, 2015.
At a hearing on 23 February 2015, prosecution lawyer Tom Lemon stated that Del Mastro's activities "were planned and deliberate and involved a high degree of sophistication". He asked for a sentence of at least nine to twelve months. "Mr. Del Mastro does not seem to get the consequences of his actions—or the seriousness of those actions." On June 25, 2015, Justice Lisa Cameron, calling Del Mastro's crimes an "affront" to Canadian democracy, sentenced him to a month in jail, four months' house arrest, and 18 months' probation. She also banned him from holding any public office while serving his conditional sentence, and from running federally for a period of five years. Del Mastro appealed the conviction. On 13 September 2017, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld his convictions, dismissing his appeal. Leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was refused on April 5, 2018.
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