Olivia Chow is taking on Rob Ford. After months of speculation Chow, a member of parliament for the left-leaning New Democratic Party, resigned her seat today to return to municipal politics, and get ready for her campaign to become the next mayor of Toronto.
Olivia Chow began her political career in Toronto. In 1991 she became the first Asian woman elected to Metropolitan Toronto Council. She was re-elected five times before going on to run for a federal seat in 2006.
Chow’s late husband, was former New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton, himself a long-time member of Toronto city council, elected first in 1982.
The municipal election will take place October 27th, 2014, and Chow is considered a front-runner. She is the only left-wing candidate in race that already includes Ford, John Tory, a one-time provincial Conservative leader and failed mayoral candidate, current ciity councillor Karen Stintz and former councillor David Soknacki.
Rob Ford urged Chow to enter the race claiming he can’t wait to debate her and John Tory. Talking to reporters in early January when he filed his nomination papers for re-election on the first day for acceptance of nominations, Ford said, “I’ve got the strongest track record, I’ve been the best mayor this city has ever had,”
‘Olivia Chow: My Journey’ her autobiography, was released in January. In it she recounts the very rough adjustment to life in Canada as a 13 year-old beginning high school. And she is frank in recounting the challenge and struggles her parents faced, including domestice violence, trying to adjust to life after Hong Kong.
When criticized for her public spending by the other right-wing candidates, Chow responds that she knows more than any of the other candidates about watching dollars and cents because of her experience growing up as an immigrant in Toronto.
Tomorrow Olivia Chow will formally announce her candidacy in the central Toronto neighbourhood she grew up in.
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