Seven Oaks Magazine.

City councillor Olivia Chow is one of Toronto’s most popular politicians. Having previously represented the city’s downtown as a metro councillor and school trustee, Chow has 20 years of experience in civic politics. Now she is seeking the federal New Democratic Party’s nomination in the downtown Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina. Chow, 47, was born in Hong Kong and is married to NDP leader Jack Layton.

We have generally noticed — in the last 10 years or so — big cities across Canada are being ignored and taken for granted. So, whether it’s investment in public transit, in building decent housing, we’ve not received the kind of investment that a good city should receive. So, a sense of being taken for granted. Cities can have a lot more power and a lot more potential than what we have now. So, a stronger city is something that we’re pushing for.

The other reason is the record of broken promises. We talk about public health care, and yet when funds are transferred from the federal government to the provincial there are no strings attached. As a result, we have for-profit health care, MRI clinics, etc. So that’s the negative side, which means that if you have money, you jump the queue.

But on the other side is that last election, I remember, there was a promise of Pharmacare where you would be able to purchase drugs cheaper. That didn’t come through. There was a promise for a national childcare program, where kids would be taken care of, and that didn’t come through either. There was a promise of building decent, affordable housing, and we still have a huge number of people sleeping on the street. So at some point, the city can only do that much. We need to take things to the national stage.

In the areas of children and youth. So for example, we have kids and seniors — that don’t have a lot of money — get free dental care. Children can get free nutrition programs, like breakfast clubs. Over 70,000 kids enjoy that program in Toronto. We have lots of before- and after-school activities for kids. Our library card for kids increased by 16 per cent. We have 11,600 computers given to kids whose parents live on welfare, but they need a helping hand to do well academically. Like, they’re doing well academically, but do even better with a computer and Internet access. Equal opportunity, right? So, that’s a lot of computers, etc.

I’m also the city of Toronto youth advocate, and I started a group called the Youth Cabinet. It’s a group of young people that basically advocates on behalf of young people in Toronto. They push the city to do the right thing — i.e., not closing all the swimming pools in schools and many campaigns they have led successfully.

My priorities don’t change. It’s still how we need to create a green economy — a very dynamic economy, creative and innovative, but also at the same time, no one’s left behind. Whether they’re kids, whether they’re living in poverty, or seniors, families, no one should be left behind. So, it’s a balance between prosperity and social justice.

Investment in the waterfront, or lack of. They want to expand the island airport — this is the federal government. We said no. They want to build a bridge. We said no. We think they should invest more in cities. They promised; they haven’t delivered the gas tax. The key issue is taking people for granted, especially people in urban centres.

Oh, you would have to ask him. Tony Ianno, sitting MP, Liberal MP, and who knows what he’s accomplished.

6. Toronto Maple Leafs president and hockey hall of famer Ken Dryden is considering joining the Liberal Party line-up; he would run in York Centre. What do you think of the Liberals’ star power strategy?

They certainly push a lot of Asians out of the way. If they think that in this country that women should have equal voice in the House of Commons, they have not expressed that. They have appointed mostly men. They appoint Asian women in seats they are not likely going to win. They push out sitting MPs that are the first Asian woman — Sophia Leung, that is. They parachuted party hacks into a riding where two Chinese-Canadians worked long and hard to try to run for Parliament. That’s a complete a lack of respect for both the democratic process, and equal representation and equal voice — that people in the House of Commons should reflect the diversity of the people.

7. Candidate demographics show that women remain underrepresented across all major parties, including the NDP. What should be done to strengthen the role of women and other marginalised groups in politics?

I think there’s two parts. The first one, the key one, is proportional representation. We have to have a system where every vote counts. In that case, then the party will have a combination of both democratically electing people from the ground up, but also appointing people if they use a list system. . . . Other countries have done this before, and you see decent representation. So, that’s the most important piece, PR, and many organisations like Fair Vote Canada have that as a push.

Another front: there has to be structure to assist affirmative action candidates. So for example, NDP would not allow a nomination to proceed unless that riding proved that it has done everything it can to recruit visible minorities or women candidates. But then, sometimes, that person may not win the nomination. So, I think there needs to be structure in place to assist some of the first time candidates — campaign schools, etc. — to make sure that they could win the nomination. So, the party itself has to have structure in place to encourage candidates to run, and to freeze the riding and not let the nomination go ahead until there’s a decent search.