Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and Ontario Premier Doug Ford pose for a photo following an announcement in Toronto, in June.Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press
In background and politics, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow are about as different as two people could be. And yet they have found a way to get along and to work together.
“The mayor and I have a phenomenal relationship, phenomenal,” Mr. Ford said when the two appeared at a news conference this week. He was responding to a reporter who asked him where he stood on the coming municipal vote in Toronto. Ms. Chow is running for re-election on Oct. 26 against two main competitors: Brad Bradford and Chris Alexander. “We’re going to continue supporting the mayor, so read between the lines,” the Premier replied.
Though (as the Premier’s office felt compelled to point out later) it fell short of an official endorsement, the remark was the latest evidence of the unusual partnership between the two, a rare example of cross-party co-operation in polarized times.
Ford’s praise of Chow was not an endorsement, his office says
Mr. Ford and Ms. Chow have intertwined histories. When Mr. Ford’s younger brother Rob was elected to Toronto city council in 2000, Ms. Chow and her husband Jack Layton were his fellow councillors. Mr. Layton had a seat next to him and took him under his wing.
Rob appreciated the kindness and spoke of it when Mr. Layton, then the popular head of the federal NDP, died of cancer in 2011 (a fate that Rob himself would suffer five years later). He said Mr. Layton told him to look for votes on both sides of the council divide. “He taught me never to take things personal,” he recalled.
Doug Ford jumped into the 2014 race for mayor after his brother fell ill. He found himself running against Ms. Chow. The two of them ended up coming second (Mr. Ford) and third (Ms. Chow) to John Tory. In 2023, Ms. Chow ran for mayor ran again in a special by-election triggered by the resignation of Mr. Tory over an affair with a much younger staffer.
Mr. Ford, by then Premier, said then that a Chow mayoralty would be an “unmitigated disaster,” nothing less. “God forbid Olivia Chow gets elected – your taxes are going up at an unprecedented rate,” he said. “Companies will leave.” He backed one of her rivals, former police chief Mark Saunders.
As soon as she was elected, though, he struck a different note. The two had a meeting the day after the vote and the Premier said all the trash talk was just something that happens during election campaigns. “We’re going to find common ground when we sit down because she’s actually quite a nice person,” he said.
Mr. Ford and Ms. Chow help pack and sort food donations at the Daily Bread Food Bank, in April.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
It hasn’t been all sunshine and roses since then. The two have clashed over his plans to put a waterpark and spa at Ontario Place on the waterfront, his decision to rip out some downtown bike lanes and his desire to expand the Billy Bishop airport on Toronto Island to accommodate jet planes.
Editorial Board: Doug Ford should (also) stay in his lane
But Ms. Chow has had the sense to pick her battles, acknowledging the fact that Mr. Ford leads the senior government and that Toronto depends heavily on Queen’s Park for funding and approvals. There is a reason, she said, practically, that Ontario Place is called Ontario Place. The provincial government created and controls it.
Mr. Ford, on his side, has done a lot to help Toronto pay its bills. Under a “new deal” between the city and the province, Mr. Ford agreed to take over the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway and assume billions in city costs. As he put it, in classic Fordian terms, this week, “we’ve given the city of Toronto more money than they’ve ever seen in their lives.”
Of course, politicians often put on a show of bonhomie after fighting like alley cats behind closed doors. Mr. Ford and Ms. Chow may be cursing each other silently as they smile for the cameras.
It doesn’t matter in the end. They both care a lot about Toronto. Despite their different political views, they both want a lot of the same things: better roads, better transit, cleaner streets, more housing.
Their partnership is working – even if they sometimes vehemently disagree. When city council voted earlier this year to explore the idea of creating not-for-profit, city-run grocery stores, Mr. Ford went off.
“She wants city-run grocery stores? You’d be subsidizing it huge, because it’s just, it’s crazy. That’s socialism.”
“I love you, mayor,” he added.