Getting to know Fabio Costante

From the dream of hearing his name cheered by the fans in the stadium to a successful law and political career, Fabio Costante, 40, has achieved a great deal in his life, so far…  

His cozy and bright office — Costante Law —is located on one of the busiest avenues of the city. Sunbeams are forcing their way inside the office through the thick drapes and it makes Costante’s office feel warm and gives it a sophisticated look of privacy. 

Costante is a dedicated Windsorite with a tremendous enthusiasm to help the community in which he lives in. 

“In fact, I was born here in West Windsor at a hospital that no longer exists, the Grace hospital on University and Crawford close by. I lived most of my life in the West End of Windsor,” said Costante. “My parents emigrated here from Italy. My mom came in the 60s. My father came in the 70s.”  

Costante is very proud being fluent in Italian. His eyes lit up when he was talking about his neighborhood and remembering his childhood dreams of becoming a soccer player. However, an injury changed his life plans. In grade school Costante had his first stint in politics. 

“I ran for an earth club. It was the first time I ever ran for a position when you needed to be voted into to get,” said Costante. “I ran to collect the recycling from each classroom for the earth club and I won. That was my first election. But I wasn’t into politics in grade school or high school at all, more into soccer, football is more appropriate.”  

“Then why did you decide to choose law as your career?” 

“It was my second year of undergrad and it was over the course of the summer,” said Costante. “I saw the law as a powerful, cool vehicle to help people in a multitude of ways, not just practicing law, but you can use a law degree in any type of profession to help people.” 

Later in undergrad school, Costante got involved with a group called Enactus at St Clair College. He started the chapter in Windsor in 2005 and was really involved with the school community. This got him to meet some people in the broader community as a result. 

 “… that led me to run for another elected position with the UWSA. And I won by like three or four votes.  It was very close. Won by a hairline, but I won and that was my first real dabble into politics,” he said. 

Costante’s experiences gave him a strong understanding of his further role in the local community. His intent in helping his community increased when his home was broken into in 2010. 

“I had this confrontation with the guy who was essentially going to steal a bunch of things from the house. I was working with the police at the time and apparently this individual broke into a bunch of homes. He got charged. At the time, we had what’s called a neighborhood watch,” said Costante. “I started this blog called Our West End.com. It still exists.  I started to share information about crime and you could subscribe by email.   A lot of people were really interested in this, because they wanted to know what was happening. They also shared a lot of information. And so, before you know it, I had like 400 or more people that were subscribed to the blog.” 

This blog started working for community purposes and not just sharing information about the neighborhood. Then it also morphed into advocacy work.  

“…it turned into these really interesting grassroots, organic type of information sharing. Connecting with residents, you know, working on challenges in the neighborhood.” 

Costante said a resident wanted to get a light installed in a park. The community helped him with the petition and advocated for him. They ended up getting it and called it ‘Willie’s Light’ because it was the gentleman’s name. 

In 2014 Costante was encouraged to run for city council, but the time wasn’t right. He was graduating from law school and getting called to the bar. He said he wanted a few years of experience practicing law. So, instead, he ran for a position on the school board and got elected for a term of four years.  Then in 2018 residents were pushing him again to run for city council. He got elected and re-elected in 2022.  

Heather McGuire-Rainone, an educator at Great Beginnings, said she had a great experience working together with Costante on a committee called West End. She has also known him with the Catholic School board. When he first started, he was a trustee on that.

“It is very nice to work with him. He listens to problems and helps with solutions,” said McGuire-Rainone. “He’s very friendly and got the passion behind him.” 

“How far do you think he can go?” 

“Mayor,” said McGuire-Rainone. “I could see him definitely becoming the next mayor. I just think he’s got that drive. He’s passionate about the city, not only just the West End, but the city itself. And he’s just, I think he likes the change. He wants to change.” 

“How do you balance in between your hard-working business days and personal life?” 

Costante clasped his hands together in a way to evoke the attention of assembling the most important segments of his daily life. 

“You know, at first it was it was work, work, work. You have to be disciplined with your time and set healthy boundaries,” said Constate. “Obviously, you need to take care of yourself. Make sure you’re sleeping well, you’re eating well. Are there times where I don’t eat well? Of course. But do I like to cook often? Yes, I like to cook. I like to eat.  I like to go for walks. I do a lot of yoga as well. I read books. Now I read two books – one is written by Barack Obama and the second one is a book by Gabrielle Marquez titled ‘Love in the Time of cholera.’ I make time for that throughout the week.”  

“Fabio, what motivates you?” 

“Oh, there’s a lot of things that motivate me,” said Costante. “It depends … for example, I get a lot of inspiration and energy from traveling. Buenos Aires in Argentina is a gorgeous city. Rio in Brazil is beautiful. There are different places. I go to Italy, I have a ton of family there.”  

Costante got very emotional talking about his love for travels.  

“Oh my God, Europe is gorgeous anyway. Really. I’ve never been to Ukraine. I’d love to see it. I’ve been to almost every country in Western Europe. So that’s on my to do list,” said Costante. 

“But if you’re really trying to understand deep down what motivates me, it’s equality and it’s equity. You know what is right and wrong, kind of creating an environment to help people,” said Costante. “…especially those that are disadvantaged for whatever reason. I’ve always had this penchant yearning to help people that were the underdog.” 

“What does underdog mean?” 

“Underdog means that you had a lot of at first, maybe adversity or challenges or hurdles.” 

“Fabio, what can you suggest to the younger generation?” 

Costante sat back in his chair in a very confident way to share his ideology. 

“You don’t have a lot of time to waste. Do things, be intentional about them. Because otherwise, if you don’t schedule those things in your life, it’s very easy to just have the days  pass and you’ll not be and you’ll not do a lot of them because you don’t make them a priority.”