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Toronto Elects First Chinese Canadian as Mayor

by VOA News

   Olivia Chow became the first Chinese-born mayor of Toronto Monday.

   Voting tallies show Chow winning 37% of the vote, with former deputy
   mayor Ana Bailoa taking 32%.

   She is the second woman elected to lead Canada's largest city. She will
   succeed John Tory, who was re-elected to a third term just last October
   but resigned just four months later after he admitted to an
   extramarital affair with a staffer.

   "If you ever questioned your faith in a better future and what we can
   do with each other, for each other, tonight is your answer," Chow told
   her supporters during her victory speech.

   The 66-year-old Chow emigrated to Canada at age 13 from Hong Kong. She
   is a former member of Canada's parliament and a Toronto city councilor.
   The left-leaning Chow campaigned on a platform of creating 25,000
   affordable housing units in the city of 2.7 million people, where
   homelessness is on the rise.

   She is also facing a host of other problems in Toronto, including a
   crumbling transit system and violent crime.

   Some information for this report came from The Associated Press,
   Reuters, Agence France-Presse.