Somebody named Osvaldo just launched a mayoral campaign

A gentleman attended Tuesday at the Ronald A. Irwin Civic Centre and declared his wish to run as a candidate in the Oct. 24 municipal election.

He presented the required two pieces of identification.

His legal given name was Osvaldo.

But he wanted a different name to appear on the ballot.

"That's allowed," Tessa Vecchio, the city's corporate communications officer, tells SooToday.

"If you normally go by a different name than your legal first name, you may use that name provided that the clerk agrees," states the Ontario government's official guide for candidates in the 2022 municipal council and school board elections.

And so it was that Ozzie Grandinetti, former city councillor in what was then known as Ward 6, began his official campaign for the Sault mayoralty.

Osvaldo/Ozzie made headlines in 2017 when he was reappointed to City Council after his name was drawn from a clear glass fishbowl.

As SooToday's Darren Taylor reported one week ago, Grandinetti is running for mayor on an austerity ticket.

Describing himself as "angry," he's against the downtown plaza, the transit terminal relocation and any tax increase in 2023.

Grandinetti is one of two candidates who filed nomination papers on Tuesday, for the Oct. 24 local elections.

The other was Suzanne Salituri, who's seeking re-election as a Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario trustee.

On Monday, the first day nominations were accepted, Ward 3 Coun. Matthew Shoemaker filed paperwork for a mayoral bid.