Who is Olivia Chow, Toronto's first Chinese-Canadian mayor? Here's all you need to know

For the first time, Toronto elected a 'non-white' Chinese-Canadian mayor. Olivia Chow pledged to support renters and social causes and reduce the sweeping powers of her office. Chow will also be the first woman to serve as mayor of the Canadian city since Barbara Hall in 1997.

As per the preliminary results, the 66-year-old securedsome 37.3 per cent votes, defeating her rival Ana Bailao, former deputy mayor, who won 32.5 per cent vote share.

Here's everything you need to know about Toronto's new mayor:

Olivia Chow: Early life and political career

Born in Hong Kong, Chow shifted to Canada when she was just 13. She is fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin and English.

In 1988, Chow was married to Jack Layton until his death in August 2011. A year later, Chow unveiled a statue dedicated to her late husband on 20 August 2012, with tributes to him written in English, Chinese and French. The statue is located in Harbour Square Park at the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal.

After completing her studies, she became active in politics, working to win the riding office of NDP P Dan Heap in the 1980s. Later in 1997, she ran as an NDP candidate for the House of Commons in Trinity-Spadina. In 2004, she won the Trinity-Spadina again.

Years later, in 2014, she entered the Toronto mayoral elections, in an attempt to defeat Rob Frod after most polls taken over the previous year suggested that she was best placed to win a head-to-head contest against Ford or a multi-candidate contest. Unfortunately, Chow finished the election race third.

As a prominent and progressive voice in Canada's capital politics, Chow again in April announced her campaign for mayor of Toronto in the 2023 by-election.

As the next council meeting is scheduled for July 19, here's what Chow promised to do during her election campaign:

Transit and Housing:

One of the first promises that Chow made was to build a dedicated busway to replace the decommissioned Scarborough RT to the tune of about $60 million. One of the differences between Chow's and her rival's pledge was to raise Toronoto's vacant home tax from one per cent to three per cent.

She promised to build 25,000 homes on city-owned land in the next eight years.

Taxes:

The municipal land taxes will be increased on homes sold for over $3 million. The money collected from the tax increase will be used to support the homeless. Though Chow didn't mention any specific number, she said that the increase will not be near 25 per cent as proposed by her rival candidates. She said that the tax increase will support city's improvements including reduced waiting time on emergency calls.

Strong Mayor Powers:

One of the most prominent promises, Chow made was that she will not use the strong mayor powers handed to municipal leaders by the Ontario government. These powers allow the mayor to overrule a council decision based on provincial priorities such as housing infrastructure, budget or hiring a certain staff.

(With inputs from agencies)

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