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Friday, September 19, 2014

Why I support Olivia Chow | Guest Columnist | Columnists | Opinion | Toronto Sun

Why I support Olivia Chow | Guest Columnist | Columnists | Opinion | Toronto Sun


TORONTO - Scandals have put our city on display internationally during this municipal election.
But Torontonians can be proud of our many local heroes that have helped to build the city’s positive reputation over many decades.
Heroes who have been close to the heart of the city’s needs, listening, caring, acting — to strengthen the public good.
They have given us a legacy that helped us build a better Toronto.
Think of Jane Jacobs, the urban planner who fought the Spadina expressway; Charles Pascal, who helped bring in all-day kindergarten; the late Dr. Sheela Basrur, who helped to lead the fight against SARS; Reverend Brent Hawkes, who fought for equal rights, including the right to marry, for lesbians and gays.
I add Olivia Chow to this list of city builders because she has been at the forefront of just about every struggle for justice in this city. Talk about public good!
Chow helped “pave the way” for bike lanes, the TTC student Metropass, and translation services in over 140 languages for 911 calls.
When a Toronto Sun reporter called me on a freezing Sunday morning in 1997 to tell me yet another homeless man had frozen to death in a city parking garage, Chow, then a city councillor, worked with me to hammer out a press release calling for more shelters and keeping up the pressure for results.
She knew how to access resources like tents and sleeping bags to help convince street youth to leave their squat in a contaminated silo on the city’s waterfront.
More important, she knew the value of the long-term solution — affordable housing.
She joined me and former Toronto mayors John Sewell and Barbara Hall on a community walk in the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood to showcase good housing and to call for the federal government to provide more.
It was Chow, as an NDP MP, who helped to ensure $1.6 billion for affordable housing was added to the 2005 federal Liberal budget.
For decades, Chow was the mover and shaker at City Hall on child and youth issues, women’s rights, affordable daycare, student nutrition projects, AIDS grants, immigration and literacy.
She was a brilliantly effective leader because she worked across party lines.
This election has focused mostly on transit and it’s great that people in our city care about it.
Chow’s transit plan is the one that reaches out to include economically struggling parts of the city, where needs are greatest.
She also recognizes you have to have somewhere to transit to and from.
A parent needs to be able to get to a childcare spot that is safe and affordable.
A senior needs to know he or she can still access fitness programs at the seniors’ centre.
A new Canadian needs to know the library will still have English as a Second Language classes to take.
Chow is not the loudest shouter in macho election debates, but she has always shone in her unpretentious dedication to social justice, urban progress and equality.
Her ability to make city hall work has produced results for the citizens of Toronto.
We need her strengths more than ever.
— Crowe is a long-time street nurse, author of Dying for a Home, Homeless Activists Speak Out and filmmaker, Home Safe Calgary, Home Safe Toronto​



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