Toronto election: Olivia Chow touts her experience in Global News interview

First elected as city councillor, then as member of Parliament, people in Toronto know Olivia Chow's name. That's not something that can be said of all mayoral candidates.

Global News is holding one-on-one interviews with the top seven polling candidates vying to become Toronto’s next mayor on June 26. Candidates were asked to choose an interview location to talk about their policies and campaign promises. Links to each of the interviews can be found below as they are published. Here is more from Olivia Chow in discussion with Global News Anchor Alan Carter.

“Good luck!” comes the shout from across Augusta Street as Olivia Chow walks through the Kensington Market neighbourhood she’s called home for decades.

First elected as city councillor, then as a member of Parliament, people in Toronto know her name, which is not something that can be said of her competitors in the race to be mayor. Chow chose the area for an interview because of its history of hosting waves of immigrants to the city.

“I didn’t script that,” she says with a laugh after more supporters come forward, some asking for pictures with her. At one point a car pulls over and a man tells Chow in Cantonese that he’s put up signs for her.

“I will be a caring mayor,” she says when we sit down for a conversation in the Free Times Cafe. “But very firm and committed in terms of the things I want to get done.”

Chow has committed to returning civic government to a central place in building housing, in funding the arts and in restoring service and staff to the Toronto Transit Commission. All of it comes with a hefty price tag, which Chow doesn’t deny.

Her promises for transit may be expensive, but more people will be putting money in the fare box she says, rubbing her fingers together.

This is something she comes back to a number of times during the interview, “sometimes spending means you create revenue in a different way.”