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Michelle Holland (born 1973), formerly known as Michelle Berardinetti, is a Canadian politician, who was elected to Toronto City Council in the 2010 city council election, defeating Adrian Heaps in Ward 35.

Background

Holland grew up in Chatham, Ontario. She started working as a student in the offices of Deputy Prime Minister Herb Gray in Windsor. She also worked for MPPs Sandra Pupatello and Dave Levac. She spent some time working as a consultant before entering politics herself. She then moved to Toronto to pursue her studies in International Relations at the University of Toronto.

She is married to former Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament and city councillor (Ward 37) Lorenzo Berardinetti. They were married on October 7, 2004. Known by the surname Berardinetti for much of her political career, she reverted to using her maiden surname in 2016.

Politics

In 2006, she ran for city councillor in the riding of Scarborough Southwest. She ran on a campaign of making sure that Scarborough got its "fair share" of tax dollars. She said, "A lot of our property tax dollars are being spent downtown and not here." She declared, "a road downtown will get paved two or three times before one is paved out here." City officials pointed out that this was not true, that road maintenance was based on need not location. In 2005, Scarborough accounted for 24% of the road repair budget which was commensurate with its population. She narrowly lost by 89 votes despite outspending her opponent with funds from the development industry.

On November 11, 2006, two days before the election The Globe and Mail published an article by columnist John Barber that endorsed Heaps while belittling Holland. Barber characterized her as the "wife of local MPP Lorenzo Berardinetti and so-called 'political adviser' (read: pillow talker). Scarborough deserves better than nepotism." Holland complained to the Ontario Press Council, saying the article made "serious, damaging" statements about her. The press council agreed that the article was unfair. In December The Globe and Mail published a correction stating that Holland was "unfairly demeaned" and that she in fact had more than 10 years experience working in government.

In early 2007, she sued Heaps for defamation. She claimed that he defamed her by reprinting the article claiming that he was the favourite and that Holland was not qualified for the job. Heaps and Holland eventually settled out of court with Heaps issuing an apology and paying for legal expenses.

In the 2010 election, Holland ran again for the ward against Heaps. One of the major issues was bike lanes in the ward. Holland claimed that unconnected bike lanes on Pharmacy Avenue and Birchmount Road were leading some residents who lived on those streets to move out of the ward. Holland, who described them as "bike lanes to nowhere", said that she would replace them with sharrows. This time she won the election by 2,203 votes.

Holland had the second worst attendance record in Toronto city council, after Giorgio Mammoliti.

Holland lost to fellow incumbent Gary Crawford in Ward 20 during the 2018 Toronto municipal election.

Election results

References

1. "Changed council faces new mayor". Toronto Star, October 25, 2010.
2. Marianne Takacs. Passions for public transit and the arts; Longtime Liberal elected to Ward 35 wants to bring collegiality, not partisanship, to the new city council. Toronto Star. November 27, 2010. pg. GT2.
3. "‘Liberal gladiators’ help Berardinetti to re-election". Toronto Observer, October 7, 2011.
4. "Scarborough Southwest Councillor now to be known as Michelle Holland for city business". Scarborough Mirror, February 23, 2016.
5. Jennifer Lewington. Fresh faces abound in wild, wild east: Four wards have no incumbent running. Globe and Mail. November 10, 2006. pg A14.
6. Moore, Aaron A. (2013). Planning Politics in Toronto. University of Toronto Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-1-4426-4423-6.
7. John Barber. Wise Council: In these wards, the choice is clear. The Globe and Mail. November 11, 2006. pp M1, M4.
8. Press Council upholds complaint. The Globe and Mail. March 16, 2007. pg. A11.
9. John Barber. A skeptic might ask, How green is their valley?. Globe and Mail. December 6, 2006. pg. A14.
10. Vanessa Lu and Paul Moloney. City pays councillor's legal bill; $60,000 boost will help Adrian Heaps over lawsuit when he was a private citizen running for office. Toronto Star. December 12, 2009. pg GT4.
11. Councillor refuses legal-fee reimbursement, Globe and Mail, January 26, 2010, pg A11.
12. Don Peat, Bike lanes irk councillor, Toronto Sun, November 22, 2010.
13. Kristofer Baker. Ward 35 candidates spar over unconnected bike lanes, The Toronto Observer. September 30, 2010.
14. "Ward 35: Scarborough Southwest". City of Toronto. Archived from the original on 2012-03-14. Retrieved 2012-04-06.
15. "Councillor: 2006 Poll by Poll Results" (PDF). City of Toronto. pp. 79–80. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-10-09. Retrieved 2012-04-06.

External links

• City of Toronto Councillor Profile
• Official website

• 1973 births
• Living people
• People from Chatham-Kent
• Toronto city councillors
• University of Toronto alumni
• Women municipal councillors in Canada
• Women in Ontario politics