Photo credit: CBC
Support is growing for a former Ontario politician, now homeless, to help him restart his life.
National Post reports that Lorenzo Berardinetti, a lawyer by profession and former municipal councillor and four-time Liberal MPP, lost his Scarborough-Southwest seat in the 2018 election. In 2022, his attempted return to municipal politics in Scarborough failed. Then, his health did too. He suffered a seizure and was in a coma for a month.
He was divorced from his wife in 2021. When he came out of the hospital, he lived with his brother in Ajax, Ont., for a while. but money tension between the siblings arose and Berardinetti left in 2023. He eventually ended up in an Ajax homeless shelter.
His plight was written about in a Toronto newspaper last week, sparking up a coalition of past and present elected officials and political staffers from all points on the political spectrum coming together to help.
By midday, Tuesday, a GoFundMe page went live to assist the politician in getting out of his financial and personal troubles.
It sets out the span of his multi-faceted political career through the years. “Since leaving office in 2018, Lorenzo has fallen on hard times like so many Canadians,” reads the GoFundMe page.
“We know Lorenzo through his work as a city builder and service to the people of Toronto and it would mean a lot to us if you would assist us with a financial contribution through this GoFundMe page. Proceeds will assist us in securing an apartment unit so we can get him out of a shelter and purchase some basic furniture.”
Before the page could go up, Berardinetti’s permission was required. Justin Van Dette, the page organizer, sought him out, contacting homeless shelters in Ajax. Van Dette learned of Berardinetti while working for former provincial Conservative education minister Dave Johnson and later former city councillor Brad Duguid.
Van Dette recalls his first encounters with Berardinetti, which date back to municipal council meetings in Toronto. Van Dette, a Tory since high school, would attend the meetings to watch proceedings, wearing a jacket that marked him as “Team Harris” – as in a supporter of former Ontario Conservative premier Mike Harris.
He said of Berardinetti, “I saw him speak positively about the issues. I respected him.”
Van Dette now works for real estate developer Tridel and is involved in community fundraising. He began reaching out to former political colleagues to seek support for Berardinetti. During a recent group call, he says “there was unanimous agreement. Everyone wanted to help him get out of the shelter.”
Past and present elected officials and political staffers are supporting the initiative.
Lorenzo Berardinetti is “humbled” by his former political allies and adversaries coming together to help him.
He said his shelter experience has been tough. “When you go into a shelter, you go into a hole. it’s hard to get out of it.”
He said that shelters are places where everyday people can find themselves – not just addicts. He has met two couples who simply couldn’t afford their mortgages and lost their homes.
To support himself, he has been drawing on his Canada Pension. According to him, it only amounts to about $800 a month for a person who has begun drawing it early.
However, after a year in a homeless shelter, he said, “I look forward to sleeping in a bed and closing my bedroom door.”
