Can Chow deliver for Toronto?

Has it been one year already? At the same time, has it only been a year?

- EDWARD KEENAN

Mayor Olivia Chow has proven she can work well with others, including Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to implement her agenda, Edward Keenan writes. Now she needs to show that her agenda can make life better for Torontonians.

Olivia Chow was sworn in as mayor of Toronto on July 12, 2023, after a whirlwind campaign in which she presented the most hopeful and optimistic take on what the city could do next. How’s that going?

In many obvious ways, her performance in the job has certainly lived up to her smiling confidence. People said she had divisive partisan baggage and wouldn’t be able to break out of the NDP bubble. She said she could, and would work with everyone. I admit I wondered.

Weeks before the election, a political insider said to me, “Can you imagine her trying to work with Doug Ford?” It was difficult. In the days after the election, plenty of avid city hall watchers trying to predict the governing council alliances thought Jennifer McKelvie, Mike Colle and Paul Ainslie would likely be steadfast opponents of the new mayor and wondered if she could get a governing majority.