Olivia Chow

Olivia Chow (born March 24, 1957) is a Canadian politician who has been the 66th mayor of Toronto since July 12, 2023.

She emigrated to Canada with her family in 1970 at the age of 13, settling in Toronto, where they first lived on the third floor of a rooming house in the Annex, before moving to a high-rise unit in St. James Town.

Her father worked odd jobs, such as delivering Chinese food and driving taxis to support the family.

Her mother became a seamstress and a maid, and worked in a hotel laundry.

Her father suffered from mental illness and was physically abusive towards her half-brother, Andre, and her mother, but "nurturing and loving" towards Olivia.

Chow was raised in a Chinese Baptist household.

As a young girl she was a slow learner and had to repeat grade 3.

However, she soon started to excel academically and she later skipped grade 8.

She attended Jarvis Collegiate Institute and studied fine arts at the Ontario College of Art, and philosophy and religion at the University of Toronto.

In 1979, she graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in fine art from the University of Guelph.

After graduation, she worked as an artist.

She owned a sculpture studio and created art pieces for clients.

She still paints occasionally.

She later taught at George Brown College's Assaulted Women and Children Counselling and Advocacy Program for five years.

Chow first became active in politics working in the riding office of local NDP MP Dan Heap in the early 1980s.

Born in British Hong Kong, Chow was first elected in 1985 as a Toronto school board trustee.

With Heap's support, Chow ran for school board trustee, and won in November 1985.

Beginning in 1986, Chow sought for programming to protect students on the basis of sexuality, spurred by incidents of harassment she was shown, and by the murder of Kenneth Zeller, a school librarian.

This led to the introduction of what was believed to be Ontario's first sexuality school program, approved in May 1988 with support of TDSB direct Ned McKeown.

She served as head of the school board's race relations committee.

She ran in the 1991 Toronto election, where she was elected to Metropolitan Toronto Council and remained active in local Toronto politics until her election to the House of Commons in the 2006 federal election.

Popular on the school board, she was handily elected to Metropolitan Toronto Council in the 1991 election for the Metro Toronto ward of Downtown (this ward was abolished in the 1997 amalgamation).

The area had long been home to a diverse group of communities in the core of Canada's largest urban centre.

Chow was re-elected several times to city council by wide margins.

As councillor, Chow was an advocate for the homeless, public transit, and many other urban issues that promote sustainable development.

She was also a vociferous opponent of the proposed Toronto Island Airport expansion, a controversial plan by the Toronto Port Authority.

Following the amalgamation of Metropolitan Toronto, she and her husband Jack Layton were prominent members of the city council.

While sometimes critical of pro-development Mayor Mel Lastman and other suburban councillors, they worked with councillors across political lines to achieve practical progressive measures.

Layton left his seat on council to become federal leader of the NDP.

Both were supporters of David Miller's successful 2003 campaign to become mayor of Toronto.

Chow was forced to resign her position on the Toronto Police Services Board because, at a riot in front of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, she informally attempted to persuade police to change their tactics.

Previously, Chow served as the New Democratic Party (NDP) member of Parliament (MP) for Trinity—Spadina from 2006 to 2014, and was a councillor on the Metro Toronto Council from 1992 to the 1998 amalgamation followed by Toronto City Council until 2005.

Her husband, Jack Layton, was also an MP, serving as leader of the Official Opposition in 2011 and leader of the NDP from 2003 until his death in 2011.

Chow resigned her seat in Parliament in 2014, to run for mayor in the 2014 election, placing third to John Tory and Doug Ford.

Following her 2014 campaign, she joined Toronto Metropolitan University as a distinguished visiting professor.

In the 2015 federal election, she unsuccessfully ran in Spadina—Fort York.

Chow was elected mayor in 2023 following Tory's resignation, defeating former deputy mayor Ana Bailão and former police chief Mark Saunders.

Chow is the first Chinese-Canadian mayor of Toronto, the third female mayor after June Rowlands and Barbara Hall, and the first female mayor post-amalgamation.

Chow was born in British Hong Kong, to Ho Sze, a schoolteacher, and Wilson Wai Sun Chow, a school superintendent.

She was raised in a middle-class family in Happy Valley, a residential area in Hong Kong.