City Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti announced Tuesday that he will be running provincially with the Ontario progressive Conservative Party in the riding of Brampton-Centre.

He said he handed in his nomination papers in the morning of March 20. Mammoliti will remain a city councillor until the June election, but will relinquish his pay for the campaign period.

“My decision is to do everything within my power to best represent Brampton-Centre and run for a seat in the legislature,” he said to CP24 following his announcement.

Brampton-Centre is a new riding that begins on the city limits between Brampton and Mississauga via Hurontario Street. The riding boundaries include Steeles Avenue East, Kennedy Road South, Bovaird Drive East, Williams Parkway East, and Torbram Road.

Mammoliti said that many of his former constituents have moved to Brampton from Toronto and that he feels a strong connection to the area as a former homeowner.

“I bought my first house in Brampton in 1983 and I feel like I am almost going home.”

Mammoliti told CP24 that although he does have ambitions to run for Mayor of Toronto, PC Party leader Doug Ford asked him not to. That request solidified his decision to run provincially.

“He wanted me to be with him,” Mammoliti said. “I’m here for Ford Nation.”

Mammoliti has been a strong supporter of the Ford family and even describes Ford Nation, the campaign slogan used to describe the family’s supporters, as “almost a religion.”

“I think people want to join it, wanting to be a part of it, wanting to believe in it,” he said on a local radio station where he announced his decision. “I believe it’s much more than a movement.”

Mammoliti told CP24 that if he were to lose either the nomination or the election in June, he would run as city councillor for another term.

Mammoliti is not unfamiliar with Queen’s Park. He was first elected to the Ontario Legislature in 1990 as an NDP MPP for Yorkview, where he served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Solicitor General, Minister of Correctional Services, and Minister of Health.

He has spent the last 16 years as city councillor for Ward 7 York-West.