Anthony Roman was a politician in Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Roman served as the Mayor of the Town of Markham, Ontario

Markham, Ontario

Markham is a town in the Regional Municipality of York, located within the Greater Toronto Area of Southern Ontario, Canada. The population was 261,573 at the 2006 Canadian census...

 from 1970 to 1984, Chair of the Regional Municipality of York in 1984, and independent Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for the riding of York North

York North

York North was an electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from Confederation in 1867 until 2004. It is also an electoral district that was represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1867 to 2007...

 from 1984 to 1988.

Roman won the 1984 election

Canadian federal election, 1984

The Canadian federal election of 1984 was held on September 4 of that year to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 33rd Parliament of Canada...

 in York North largely because of the controversial views of Progressive Conservative

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

 MP John Gamble

John A. Gamble

John Albert Gamble was a far-right Canadian politician. He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative in the 1979 federal election and re-elected in the 1980 election representing the riding of York North.He was a candidate at the 1983 Progressive Conservative...

.

Because the PC and Liberal candidates were unpopular, community leaders asked Roman to stand as a "Coalition Candidate". Roman used the PC blue and Liberal red on his signs, and drew supporters from both parties.

He was one of the very few MPs in recent decades to be elected as an independent candidate in the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

.

Roman did not seek re-election to the House of Commons in 1988 but instead endorsed Micheal O'Brien as the Progressive Conservative Candidate. O'Brien was one of the community leaders who had convinced Roman to run as a "Coalition" independent in 1984. Roman was returned as mayor of Markham, defeating Carole Bell, who had succeeded Roman as mayor upon his appointment as York chairman in 1984. He was easily re-elected in the 1991 municipal elections.

Roman was instrumental in the design and construction of The Cathedral of the Transfiguration, a large Slovak Byzantine church built on open land in northwestern Markham.