Pietro Calendino

Who is Pietro Calendino?

Pietro Calendino is a Canadian provincial and municipal politician currently serving as a city councillor in Burnaby, British Columbia.

Calendino was born in Calabria, Italy but emigrated to Vancouver in 1959. He received an Honours B.A. and a M.A. from the University of British Columbia. He received a teaching certificate from Simon Fraser University and has taught in secondary schools in Burnaby and Delta.

He helped found the BC Heritage Languages Association. He has served as president of the BC Association of Teachers of Modern Languages, director of the Burnaby Multicultural Society and vice-president of the National Congress of Italian Canadians.

Calendino was elected as a Burnaby school trustee in 1987, and re-elected in 1990 and 1993. While on the school board he established language classes in Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish and Punjabi. He also established a zero tolerance policy towards violence and bullying in schools which was later adopted province-wide. He served as school board chair in 1993 and 1994.

In the 1996 B.C. general election he was elected to the Provincial Legislature as a New Democratic Party of British Columbia candidate in the Burnaby North riding. In July 1999, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Small Business, Tourism and Culture. He was best known for establishing funds for the Burnaby School District's Children's Dental Clinic, the Heights Fountain Square project and the Elizabeth Fry Society for women in need.