Global Courant
Olivia Chow has been elected mayor of Toronto, CP24 declares, ending nearly 13 years of right-wing rule at Toronto City Hall and becoming the first woman and first visible minority to lead the city since the merger.
CP24 called at 9 p.m., with Chow appearing to have garnered 37.2 percent of the vote.
Chow, 66, was the favorite to win the race from the moment she entered and managed to take a decisive lead in the polls, although the race ended up being a photo finish between her and Ana Bailao on election night.
Run on a campaign to “build a caring city where everyone belongs,” she often seemed to float above the fray in a crowded field of candidates who desperately tried to portray her as someone who would unnecessarily raise property taxes.
The second time proved to be the charm for Chow, who ran for mayor and lost to John Tory in 2014.
It was Tory’s surprise firing in February after admitting to having an affair with a staffer that gave her a second chance at a win.
Entering a race that attracted 101 other applicants, Chow’s name recognition gave her an edge.
She cut her teeth as a school board trustee in the 1980s before winning a Toronto council seat in 1992. She remained on the council through amalgamation until 2005, when she ran for office and won a seat as a federal member of parliament.
Chow, an immigrant who came to Toronto from Hong Kong with her parents at the age of 13, spoke of their struggles to adapt to a new country under difficult circumstances. She started sewing buttons on jeans as a teenager to help her family, while her mother cleaned the houses and her father took various jobs.
Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow is photographed after a mayoral debate in Toronto on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Chow is also the widow of the late NDP leader Jack Layton, who himself came to federal politics from Toronto City Council, leading their party to unprecedented opposition status in 2011 in the so-called “orange crush” before his sudden death from the same cancer. year.
Chow’s stepson Mike Layton was a city councilor before stepping down from the role last year and was involved in her efforts to get out of the vote on Monday.
Late in the race, polls showed former councilor Ana Bailao gaining ground, buoyed by a last-minute endorsement by Tory. But despite the approval — and the support of nearly half of the council — she was unable to catch up.
Chow also managed to win despite a fierce push from former police chief Mark Saunders, who ran on a law-and-order platform and framed his campaign as a mission to prevent Chow from being elected at all costs. Saunders had Prime Minister Doug Ford backing him, with Ford publicly stating that a Chow win would be a “disaster”.
But while her rivals tried to portray her as a partisan who would act as an unofficial opposition to Queens Park, Chow has said the beauty of municipal politics is that you can work with anyone to get things done, and that she would proceed accordingly.
She cited her work with right-wing members of the council to get a dental program for low-income kids and seniors, as well as with federal conservatives to get a share of the transit gas tax when she was in parliament fed up.
While the other candidates did their best to take her down, Chow seemed unnerved by their attacks most of the time.
While other candidates identified crime and safety as the most important issue facing the city, Chow’s message about affordability and helping those in need ultimately resonated with voters.
Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow walks in the Toronto Pride Parade on Sunday, June 25, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Early on, she said she would run a different campaign than last time, focusing more on having fun and being herself rather than sounding polished. She kept her word and it was not unusual to see her dancing at campaign announcements.
“People know who I am, people know my values,” she told CP24.com in an interview during the campaign.
Her years of experience and continued involvement with people in the city over the years, Chow said, allowed her to speak with knowledge without worrying too much about how she’s coming off.
WHAT COMES NEXT
While Chow was a council member for many years, she will return to a council that has changed a lot. Ford used his majority in Queen’s Park in 2018 to cut the city council in half, and last year he granted Toronto strong mayoral powers.
Those new powers include a provision that allows the mayor to override a majority vote on the council, though Chow has said she would not use that power and will instead try to reach consensus with the council. She will be helped in that regard by the six left-wing councilors who supported her campaign.
While she will have more control over the city’s agenda as mayor, Chow will also inherit a city plagued by serious financial problems, namely a $1.5 billion deficit for fiscal 2022 and 2023 and the loss imposed by the county. of some development costs.
Chow has said she believes she can strike a better deal with the higher levels of government by involving the city’s residents in a transparent negotiation and budgeting process. But if it can’t, it will almost certainly have to raise taxes or cut services.
Chow has repeatedly said she would not put an upper limit on property tax increases until she first assessed the city’s needs. Her fellow candidates hammered her on the issue during the campaign trail, but she refused to go back on the point.
Chow has also said she would save the city hundreds of millions of dollars by turning the eastern portion of the Gardiner Expressway into a boulevard rather than rebuilding it. That promise could potentially open old wounds in a controversial decision made by the council seven years ago if it decides to stick to the commitment.
But Chow vowed during the campaign, acknowledging the “immense” challenges facing the city, that she would do her best to bring people together, saying “Election Day is just the beginning.”
