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[Photo Credit : Frank Sun, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, background changed]
She landed in Toronto at 13, sharing a tight rooming house with her parents and a dictionary that stayed open more than it closed. Classes by day, shifts by night, translation at the dinner tableâimmigrant life in St. James Town taught her the math of survival: every extra hour could buy a little more tomorrow.
⨠A Spark Becomes a Calling â Start where your neighbours need you
Before the chain of office, Oliviaâs chapters were local: art school, community work, school board organizing, then councilâand later Member of Parliament. The throughline wasnât title; it was service. In July 2023, after a by-election, she was sworn in as Torontoâs 66th mayor, the first person of Asian descent to hold the role since amalgamation. City of Toronto+1
âCity hall should feel like home.â
Concrete example: On day one, she framed the job around a ânew dealâ for city financesâpushing the province and Ottawa to help fix structural shortfalls that pandemic losses had blown open. That ask became an organizing backbone for everything else. Wikipedia
đ Budget, Buses, and the Bills â Fix the pipes before the paint
Toronto entered 2024-2025 with one of its largest modern shortfalls. Chow backed a budget that mixed higher property-taxes with program protection and capital investments, and negotiated intergovernmental help. By 2025, the final budget prioritized affordability, transit safety/service, and community services, funded in part by a 5.4% residential property-tax increase (about $210 on the average home). City of Toronto
Transit example: The TTC 2025 budget froze fares for a second straight year while adding the most service in a decade and investing in vehicles and state-of-good-repairâan explicit try at rebuilding ridership and safety without hitting ridersâ wallets. TTC
Takeaway for readers: Budgets are values. When a city chooses to keep fares flat and still expand service, itâs betting that access drives recoveryâand that stable, frequent transit is an equity tool, not a luxury.
đ Housing: Add Doors, Not Just Slogans â Make policy measurable
Chowâs housing push has leaned on opening up âmissing-middleâ supply and speeding approvals: laneway and garden suites, multiplexes, and mid-rise along transit. Staff estimates suggest these tools could enable ~54,600 homes by 2031 (and more by 2051) if scaled citywide, alongside faster reviews and targeted fee relief for affordable projects. City of Toronto+1
Example: The Mayorâs office and City staff rolled out âunlock homesâ proposals (2025) plus a development-review division that cut approval times sharply in 2024âturning a political promise (âbuild fasterâ) into an administrative machine. City of Toronto+1
Takeaway: Donât argue abstractions; count keys. Targets + process changes + fee tools = shovels in the ground.
𧊠Culture & Belonging â Small signals, big tent
From library access to symbols in public space, the mayorâs office has treated belonging as infrastructure. One example: a plan to open all 100 Toronto Public Library branches seven days a week by 2026, expanding programming and hours so new Canadians and working families can actually use the services they pay for. Wikipedia
Another: supporting the Cityâs process around renaming civic assets (e.g., YongeâDundas Square â Sankofa Square) to reflect inclusive historiesâwork thatâs granular, sometimes contentious, and fundamentally about who sees themselves in the cityâs mirrors. Wikipedia
đŻ Why Her Story Inspires
- Immigrant beginnings â city leadership grounded in lived experience. City of Toronto
- Service that scales: neighbourhood work â council â Parliament â Mayor. City of Toronto
- Budgets as moral documents: transit, housing, librariesâmeasured in daily life, not press releases. City of Toronto
