Frank Roger Mazzuca, Sr. (15 March 1922 - 9 September 2009) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

politician and businessman in

Capreol Capreol ( ) is a community in the Ontario city of Greater Sudbury. Situated on the Vermilion River (35 mins north of the downtown core), Capreol is the city's northernmost populated area. From 1918 to 2000, Capreol existed as an independent to ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. He served as mayor of the town from 1975 to 1997, and as chair of the

Regional Municipality of Sudbury The Regional Municipality of Sudbury was a regional municipality that existed in Ontario, Canada, from 1973 to 2000, and was primarily centred on the city of Sudbury. It served as an upper-tier level of municipal government, aggregating municipal ...

from 1998 to 2000.

Early life

Born in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, he moved to Capreol with his family at the age of seven."Mazzuca a local legend"
''

Sudbury Star ''The Sudbury Star'' is a Canadian daily regional newspaper published in Sudbury, Ontario. It is owned by the media company, Postmedia. It is the largest daily paper in Northeastern Ontario by circulation. History The ''Sudbury Star'' began ...

'', September 10, 2009. He worked in his parents' family-owned grocery store in childhood. As a young man Mazzuca went to work for

CN Rail The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue an ...

, where he was a brakeman for 37 years. In 1950 he opened Mazzuca Furniture & Appliance Company.

Political career

First elected to the town council of Capreol in 1957, Mazzuca served as the town's mayor from 1975 to 1997. In that year, he ran for chair of the

, losing to Peter Wong — however, Wong died in office the following year, and Mazzuca ran in and won the resulting

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

. He served as the final chair of the regional municipality, which was amalgamated into the current city of

Greater Sudbury Sudbury, officially the City of Greater Sudbury, is the largest city in Northern Ontario by population, with a population of 166,004 at the 2021 Canadian Census. By land area, it is the largest in Ontario and the List of the largest cities and t ...

in 2001. During Mazzuca's term as regional chair, Sudbury resident Ron Billard wrote a letter to the editor of the ''

'', criticizing Mazzuca for using a

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment which can be operated mechanically by hand or by a button electronically. A luxu ...

to travel to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

for a meeting at Queen's Park;"Man successfully sued city: Ron Billard, 70, a vocal critic of local government, dies". ''

'', December 18, 2003. Mazzuca's response to the letter was "just tell the stupid bastard to call me on the phone"."Answers denied in killer's transfer". ''

'', December 27, 2000. Billard sued for

defamation Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

, demanding $150,000 in damages, although the suit was settled out of court for $7,500; Mazzuca in turn sued the ''Star'' for printing a comment he had intended off the record. Although a longtime opponent of proposals to amalgamate the regional municipality of Sudbury into a single city, he endorsed the proposal in 1999 after provincial

Municipal Affairs Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

minister

Steve Gilchrist Steve Gilchrist (born July 7, 1954) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2003 and served as a cabinet minister in the government of Mike Harris. ...

indicated that reform of the region's existing model of government was inevitable. In a reform model proposed by Mazzuca, the existing number of councillors across the seven municipal councils of the region would have been retained on the new merged council, in order to protect the level of representation in the suburban towns; however, in the model that was ultimately implemented, the number of councillors was significantly reduced. As a result, following his retirement Mazzuca went back to being a bluntly outspoken advocate of holding a deamalgamation referendum."Councillors rally support for de-amalgamation"
, '' Northern Life'', April 25, 2006. The community newspaper '' Northern Life'' quoted Mazzuca as saying that "It was a great thing to call up the mayor and say, 'A dog shit on my lawn, what are you going to do about it?' When they'd call me I'd tell them, 'Not my dog, not my lawn, not my shit.'" Mazzuca was a recipient of the

Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal () or the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal was a commemorative medal created in 2002 to mark the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952. The Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal was ...

in 2002.Governor General Of Canada - Honours
- retrieved 12 September 2009

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mazzuca, Frank 1922 births 2009 deaths Businesspeople from Greater Sudbury Politicians from Greater Sudbury Italian emigrants to Canada 20th-century mayors of places in Ontario