Monica Ciriello
Monica Ciriello | |
|---|---|
 Ciriello in 2025 | |
| Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for Hamilton Mountain | |
| Assumed office February 27, 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Monique Taylor |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1988 or 1989 (age 37–38) London, Ontario |
| Party | Progressive Conservative |
Other political affiliations | Conservative Party of Canada |
| Education | |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Monica Ciriello MPP is a Canadian politician, currently serving as the MPP for Hamilton Mountain in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. She was elected in the 2025 Ontario general election as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.
Early life, education and early career
[edit]Ciriello was born in London, Ontario. Her father, John Ciriello, was a professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Western University.[1]
Ciriello earned a BA in Political Science from Western and a MA in the same field from the University of Windsor and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Michigan. During her studies, Ciriello was active with campus Conservative organizations.[1]
While studying law in the United States, Ciriello met her future husband, Greg Witt. Ciriello credits her spouse with inspiring her to focus on municipal planning law.[1]
Before entering provincial politics, Ciriello practiced municipal and planning law in both the public and private sectors. After returning to Canada, Ciriello worked as a solicitor for the City of Windsor. She then served as the Assistant County Solicitor with Middlesex County before joining Aird & Berlis LLP in Toronto as an associate. At Aird & Berlis, she represented private developers and municipalities on land-use and planning law matters. In 2019, Ciriello joined the City of Hamilton as Director of Municipal Law and Licencing where she oversaw regulatory policy, municipal policy reform, by-law enforcement and the administration of municipal tribunals.[1]
In 2021, Ciriello was appointed as an adjudicator of Ontario's Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, serving until the end of that year. In January 2022, she was appointed as a Vice-chair of the Licence Appeal Tribunal, where she adjudicated matters including automobile accident benefits and regulatory appeals. She remained Vice-chair until resigning in March 2025 following her election to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.[2]
Ciriello is an author on municipal law and public policy, authoring columns the International Municipal Lawyers Association. Ciriello has also previously worked with the conservative think-tank, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and participated in podcasts and as an author for the local affairs magazine Municipal World.[1][3]
Ciriello has also served on the advisory board of McMaster University's Master of Public Policy Program.
Political career
[edit]Ciriello stood as the Conservative Party's candidate in Hamilton Centre in 2019. During the campaign, Ciriello campaigned against federal carbon pricing and gun control, and as "pro-pipeline" and tough-on-crime. Ciriello was critiqued during the campaign for living outside of the riding. She placed third with just over 14% of the vote.[4][5][6]
Ciriello was named as the Ontario Progressive Conservative candidate on Hamilton Mountain just prior to the snap 2025 provincial election. Like most Ontario PC candidates, Ciriello did not participate in local debates during the campaign. Her campaign told the Hamilton Spectator that she was not aware of the all-candidates debate hosted by local media.[7][8]
On election night, Ciriello captured just over 36% of the vote, beating her nearest rival, school trustee Dawn Danko of the Ontario Liberals by 2,000 votes. In winning, Ciriello became the first PC candidate to win the seat since Trevor Pettit, who held it from 1995 to 1999 during the government of Mike Harris.[9]
In 2025 she was appointed as the Parliamentary Assistant to the Attorney General by Doug Ford.
In 2026, Ciriello introduced a private member's motion calling on the Ontario government to modernize and strengthen the provinces restraining order system, particularly in relation to victims of intimate partner and family violence. The motion was unanimously adopted by the Legislative Assembly, with 109 members voting in favour and none opposed.[10][11]
Ciriello and Perth-Welling MPP Matthew Rae served as co-chairs of the 2026 Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario convention.[12]
Electoral history
[edit]| 2025 Ontario general election: Hamilton Mountain | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Progressive Conservative | Monica Ciriello | 13,948 | 36.16 | +6.16 | $75,486 | |||
| Liberal | Dawn Danko | 11,933 | 30.93 | +15.36 | $57,529 | |||
| New Democratic | Kojo Damptey | 10,037 | 26.02 | –18.79 | $62,639 | |||
| Green | Joshua Czerniga | 1,544 | 4.00 | –1.62 | $525 | |||
| New Blue | Layla Marie-Angela Protopapa | 392 | 1.02 | –1.25 | $0 | |||
| None of the Above | Dan Preston | 278 | 0.72 | N/A | $0 | |||
| Independent | Ejaz Butt | 267 | 0.69 | N/A | $2,191 | |||
| Ontario Party | Bing Wong | 178 | 0.46 | –1.27 | $565 | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 38,578 | 99.42 | ±0.0 | $135,739 | ||||
| Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots | 225 | 0.58 | ±0.0 | |||||
| Turnout | 38,803 | 46.14 | +4.65 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 84,106 | |||||||
| Progressive Conservative gain from New Democratic | Swing | −4.60 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Ontario[13][14] | ||||||||
| 2019 Canadian federal election: Hamilton Centre | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| New Democratic | Matthew Green | 20,368 | 46.16 | +0.60 | $71,015.33 | |||
| Liberal | Jasper Kujavsky | 12,651 | 28.67 | -4.72 | $79,469.65 | |||
| Conservative | Monica Ciriello | 6,341 | 14.37 | -0.28 | $13,186.90 | |||
| Green | Jason Lopez | 3,370 | 7.64 | +3.31 | none listed | |||
| People's | Melina Mamone | 833 | 1.89 | – | none listed | |||
| Christian Heritage | Gary Duyzer | 182 | 0.41 | – | none listed | |||
| Independent | Tony Lemma | 158 | 0.36 | – | $2,716.24 | |||
| Independent | Edward Graydon | 134 | 0.30 | – | none listed | |||
| Independent | Nathalie Xian Yi Yan | 85 | 0.19 | – | none listed | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 44,122 | 99.09 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 405 | 0.91 | +0.26 | |||||
| Turnout | 44,527 | 59.08 | -0.34 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 75,371 | |||||||
| New Democratic hold | Swing | +2.66 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Canada[15][16] | ||||||||
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 Wells, Jon (5 March 2025). "Rookie MPP revels in pulling off 'unthinkable' PC win on Hamilton Mountain". Hamilton Spectator. Archived from the original on 5 March 2025.
- ↑ "Tribunals Ontario 2021-22 Annual Report". stage.tribunalsontario.ca. Retrieved 2026-09-11.
- ↑ "Today's Top Issues in Municipal Law". February 2025.
- ↑ Werner, Kevin (7 October 2019). "Hamilton Centre's crime prompt Conservative's Monica Ciriello and NDP's Matthew Green to face off during debate". Stoney Creek News. Archived from the original on 4 December 2025.
- ↑ Moro, Teviah (9 October 2019). "Candidates face off in wide-open Hamilton Centre". Hamilton Spectator. Archived from the original on 4 December 2025.
- ↑ Moro, Teviah (22 October 2019). "Green keeps Hamilton's urban heartland NDP orange". Hamilton Spectator. Archived from the original on 4 December 2025.
- ↑ Radley, Scott (20 February 2025). "No-show Progressive Conservative candidates spur criticism at Hamilton election debates". Hamilton Spectator. Archived from the original on 22 February 2025.
- ↑ Bron, Sebastian (21 February 2025). "Hamilton Mountain election race gets 'personal' as parties battle for city's only open seat". Hamilton Spectator. Archived from the original on 21 February 2025.
- ↑ Bron, Sebastian (27 February 2025). "Monica Ciriello wins open Hamilton Mountain seat for Tories". The Hamilton Spectator. Retrieved 28 February 2025.
- ↑ "Private members' motion 53 | Legislative Assembly of Ontario". www.ola.org. 2026-04-13. Retrieved 2026-09-11.
- ↑ "Hansard Transcript 2026-Apr-02 vol. B | Legislative Assembly of Ontario". www.ola.org. 2026-04-02. Retrieved 2026-09-11.
- ↑ SPACES, Share on; Email, Share by; Facebook, Share on; X, Share on; LinkedIn, Share on; Message, Share via Text (2026-01-19). "Rae, Ciriello to lead PC convention focused on economy, people, and communities". StratfordToday.ca. Retrieved 2026-09-11.
{{cite web}}:|last2=has generic name (help) - ↑ "Hamilton Mountain Unofficial Election Results". Elections Ontario. Retrieved 28 February 2025.
- ↑ "Vote Totals From Official Tabulation" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 3 March 2025. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
- ↑ "List of confirmed candidates". Elections Canada. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
- ↑ "Official Voting Results". Elections Canada. Retrieved August 14, 2021.
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