Bob gallagher olivia chow biography
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At 13, Olivia and her family moved into an apartment in St. James Town. Her mother, Ho Sze Chow, grew up in Guangdong Province during the Japanese occupation of China in World War II. After joining the Chinese National Army, she married soldier Chow Nam Shang and had a son, Yu Chin Chow (later known as Andre). They had chosen Toronto because it had the highest Chinese population in Canada, so they were still surrounded by people who spoke the same language and had, the same culture as them.
Unfortunately, her parents faced some challenges immigrants often face. Jack Layton was a fellow politician, who was the leader of the NDP during the beginning of its official opposition. She keeps fighting despite everything she’s been through and all the obstacles she has faced. While at City Hall, she served as Chair of the Community Services Committee and Vice Chair of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) as well as served on the budget committee for a decade.
While still a school trustee, Olivia married then City Councillor Jack Layton in 1988, and they forged one of Canada’s most remarkable political partnerships.
Her parents faced the challenges of so many immigrants who have come here to build a new life for their children and make an impact on our city. It was tight, but she came in first and was sworn in as the mayor of Toronto on July 12, 2023. Even after another diagnosis in 2013, this time for Ramsay Hunt Syndrome Type II, which causes facial nerve paralysis, Olivia Chow keeps on fighting.
She became the first woman of colour to be a city councilor in 1991, and the first female Asian MP in Toronto. She also studied philosophy and religion at the University of Toronto. Since then Olivia Chow has made many more great changes, and she’ll make even more yet.
Olivia Chow, 66th Mayor of Toronto
Olivia Chow is the 66th Mayor of Toronto, the first person of Asian descent to serve as Mayor, and the first woman since the six municipalities of Metro Toronto were amalgamated into one in 1998.
Born in Hong Kong in 1957, Mayor Olivia Chow immigrated to Toronto with her parents at the age of 13, where they moved to an apartment in the St.
James Town neighbourhood. His last few weeks were spent with family and friends before Jack Layton passed away on August 22, 2010. In 1991, Olivia became the first Asian-born woman elected as a Metro Toronto Councillor, where she created lasting programs that continue to help hundreds of thousands of families in Toronto each year.
This meant that they were middle class, although in Canada, they would’ve been upper-middle class. It started with a protest urging the Canadian government to take in refugees from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, often known as the boat people. Her childhood was marked by domestic challenges, including her father’s abusive behavior toward her mother and stepbrother.
Fortunately, by grade six, she had pulled it together and was one of the best in her class. After resigning in 2014 to run for mayor, she placed third behind John Tory and Doug Ford. Chow began her career in Toronto municipal politics as a school trustee.