Di Ianni immigrated to Canada from Italy in 1956 as a boy. Following his father, who had immigrated years before the family and found work at Stelco, Di Ianni and his family settled in an apartment on Cannon Street. Pressured by his mother, an assembly-line worker in a shoe factory, to receive a university education, Di Ianni graduated from McMaster University with a Bachelor's degree in English and went on to receive his Master's Degree in Education from the University of Toronto soon after. After graduating, Di Ianni moved with his wife Janet and three children, Robert, Paul and Stephanie, to Stoney Creek. There, Di Ianni was hired by the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board as a high school teacher and quickly worked his way up to the position of principal.
Political history
Di Ianni was first elected to Stoney Creek council in 1982, where he served for six terms until the amalgamation of the town into Hamilton. Following amalgamation, Di Ianni was elected to Hamilton City Council as councillor for Ward Ten, defeating former Stoney Creek deputy mayor Albert Marrone and town councillor Maria Pearson in a hotly contested race. Di Ianni served one term as a Hamilton councillor until November 2003. In early March 2003, Di Ianni was approached by members of the Ontario Liberals, including then-Premier Dalton McGuinty, in an effort to convince him to run provincially against Labour MinisterBrad Clark. Di Ianni ultimately declined the offer, noting that he wished to focus on municipal issues. In the same month, sitting Hamilton mayor Bob Wade announced me would not seek re-election in the 2003 municipal election. On April 28, 2003, Di Ianni announced he would seek the office of mayor indicating that he believed Hamilton to be at a crossroads with regard to development. Di Ianni's main opponent in the race was former provincial NDPcabinet ministerDavid Christopherson and the race focused considerably on the construction of the Red Hill Expressway, of which Di Ianni was in favour and Christopherson was opposed. The candidates sparred frequently on the campaign trail, with Di Ianni promoting his municipal experience and support from the business community while Christopherson highlighted his time in cabinet and support from organized labour and progressive political organizations. On election night, Di Ianni defeated Christopherson by a margin of 52% to 39%. Speaking to reporters, Di Ianni noted he was immensely happy that the voters of Hamilton elected their first Italian-Canadian mayor by such a large margin. Di Ianni's term as mayor saw him attempt to enact his mayoral platform by addressing such issues as the completion of the Red Hill Expressway, business tax reduction, airport development, improving relations among the amalgamated municipalities, and obtaining additional social service funding from the more senior levels of government. On July 10, 2006 Di Ianni, along with two other unsuccessful candidates, were charged under the Provincial Offences Act of Ontario for violating the Municipal Elections Act of Ontario. On August 24, 2006, he accepted responsibility by pleading guilty for violating the Provincial Offences Act related to accepting inappropriate campaign donations. The Superior Court Justice exercised leniency as he deemed the violations to be unintentional and considered Di Ianni's good community service record. The Justice also likened the violation to a speeding ticket and withdrew the remaining charges. He lost the mayoralty to Fred Eisenberger in the 2006 municipal election. In the 2008 federal election, Di Ianni was the Liberal candidate in the federal riding of Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, losing the race to incumbent MPWayne Marston of the NDP by a margin of 6,464 votes. Di Ianni ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Hamilton in October 2010.
