Olivia Chow

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Olivia Chow 鄒至蕙
Member of Parliament for Trinity—Spadina
Incumbent
Assumed office  2006 Federal Election
Preceded by	Tony Ianno
Born	March 24 1957 ( 1957-03-24) (age 51) Hong Kong
Political party	New Democratic Party
Spouse	Jack Layton
Residence	Toronto, Ontario
Profession	Politician

Olivia Chow (traditional Chinese: 鄒至蕙; born March 24, 1957) is a social democratic Canadian Member of Parliament and former city councillor (1991-2005) in Toronto. Born in Hong Kong, Chow emigrated to Canada when she was thirteen years old and is fluent in two of her constituency's main languages, Cantonese and English. She won the Trinity—Spadina riding for the New Democratic Party on January 23, 2006, becoming a member of the Canadian House of Commons. Chow is married to NDP leader Jack Layton.

Contents 1 Municipal career 2 Federal politics 3 Outside of politics 4 References 5 External links 6 Electoral record

[edit] Municipal career

Chow first became active in politics working with local NDP MP Dan Heap. With his support, she ran for school board trustee, and won in 1985. Popular on the school board, she was elected to Toronto city council in 1991 in Ward 20 (Ward 24 from 1997-2006) in the riding of Trinity—Spadina. The area has 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 city 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 that would increase air traffic over Ward 20.

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 strong 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. Some argued, however, that she was ousted for her outspoken attitude towards alleged police misconduct.

Chow was renowned for her trademark bicycle, decorated with flowers and bright colours. She rode every day to Toronto City Hall, and carless commuting was consistent with her environmentalist values.

Chow was voted "Best City Councillor" on numerous occasions by Toronto's alternative weeklies Now Magazine^[1][2] and Eye Weekly.

[edit] Federal politics

In 1997, Chow ran as the New Democratic Party candidate for the Canadian House of Commons in Trinity—Spadina. Chow came close to defeating Liberal Party incumbent Tony Ianno.

In 2004, Chow again won the Trinity—Spadina NDP nomination for the summer federal election, giving her another chance to unseat Tony Ianno of the Liberal Party. David Watters of the Conservatives also ran in the election. With support from Jack Layton, a new urban focus of the NDP, and higher party popularity nationwide, she was widely expected to win despite some criticism from voters who elected her to a municipal seat just six months prior. She managed another strong second place showing, but failed to unseat Ianno by only 2% of the total vote.

Tactical voting was blamed partially for Chow's defeat, as the Liberal attack ads on Stephen Harper attempted to make the election a choice between the Liberals and Conservatives, with the effecting of attracting NDP-leaning voters to support the Liberals and stave off a potential Harper government. Chow also did not resign her council seat to run federally, with some suggesting that her constituents were able to vote Liberal and while still having Chow around to represent them.

When the Liberal federal government was defeated on a motion of non-confidence, Chow resigned her city council seat of fourteen years on November 28, 2005 to making a third run at seat in the House of Commons. She was succeeded on city council on an interim basis Martin Silva. As Silva was not allowed to run for re-election, Chow's constituency assistant Helen Kennedy ran but lost to Adam Vaughan.

During the 2006 campaign, Mike Klander, an executive of the federal Liberal party's Ontario wing, made comments in his blog that described Chow as a Chow-Chow dog and called her husband Layton an asshole.^[3][4] Layton denounced the comments as racist, and Klander apologized and resigned.

On January 23, 2006, she won the Trinity—Spadina seat for the NDP in the federal election. She defeated Ianno by 3,667 votes, almost 6%. Along with Jack Layton she is part of only the second husband and wife team in Canadian parliamentary history. (Gurmant Grewal and Nina Grewal were the first, winning their seats in the 2004 election.)

In 2007, Chow sponsored a motion calling for Japan to apologise for forcing some 200,000 women to serve as wartime sex slaves. The motion was passed unanimously by Canada's parliament in November 2007. Chow stated, "for me, this isn't crimes against 200,000 women. It's crimes against humanity and all of the world's citizens have a responsibility to speak out against it."^[5]

[edit] Outside of politics

Chow championed the novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood in the 2005 edition of Canada Reads.

In 2005, she revealed that she had undergone surgery for thyroid cancer in 2004. She decided to speak out in order to raise awareness of the disease.^[6]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• "One on one with: Olivia Chow" (Interview with Chatelaine magazine)
• Parliament Webpage

Parliament of Canada
Preceded by Tony Ianno	Member of Parliament from Trinity—Spadina 2006—	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by ?	Toronto City Councillor for Ward 20/24 Trinity—Spadina 1991–2006	Succeeded by Martin Silva temporary appointment

[edit] Electoral record

2006 federal election : Trinity—Spadina edit
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	New Democratic Party	Olivia Chow	28,748	46.03%	$78,702.00
	Liberal	Tony Ianno	25,067	40.13%	$66,373.15
	Conservative	Sam Goldstein	5,625	9.00%	$22,878.5
	Green	Thom Chapman	2,398	3.83%	$165.00
	Progressive Canadian	Asif Hossain	392	0.62%	$256.70
	Marxist-Leninist	Nick Lin	138	0.22%	N/A
	Canadian Action	John Riddell	82	0.13%	$25.00
Total valid votes			62,450	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			278
Turnout			62,728	70.9%

2004 federal election : Trinity—Spadina edit
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Tony Ianno	23,202	43.55%	$68,821.44
	New Democratic Party	Olivia Chow	22,397	42.03%	$77,070.48
	Conservative	David Watters	4,605	8.64%	$34,598.25
	Green	Mark Viitala	2,259	4.24%	$1,329.97
	Progressive Canadian	Asif Hossain	531	0.99%	$23.78
	Marxist-Leninist	Nick Lin	102	0.19%	$163.73
	Canadian Action Party	Tristan Alexander Downe-Dewdney	91	0.17%	N/A
	N/A (Popular Democratic)	Daniel Knezetic	89	0.16%	$3,102.59
Total valid votes			53,276
Total rejected ballots			329
Turnout			53,605	63.7%

1997 federal election : Trinity—Spadina edit
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Tony Ianno	18,215	45.2
	New Democrat	Olivia Chow	16,413	40.7
	Progressive Conservative	Danielle Wai Mascall	2,793	6.9
	Reform	Nolan Young	1,649	4.0
	Green	Sat Singh Khalsa	392	1.0
	Natural Law	Ashley Deans	194	0.6
	Independent	John Roderick Wilson	159	0.5
	Marxist-Leninist	J.-P. Bedard	140	0.4
	Canadian Action	Thomas P. Beckerle	130	0.3
	Independent	Roberto Verdecchia	129	0.3