Olivia Chow now running federally

She should definitely stand against Adam Vaughan and knock his arrogant, elitist, dismissive patootie right outta the House.  It's the payback that jerk deserves.

Remember those horrible little animated segments on some news site that depicted her(and Jack)wearing Mao suits, and showed her speaking in an offensive vaudeville "so solly you sick" accent?

Weird how a middle-aged Chinese-Canadian woman who "doesn't know her place" can still set some of these old conservosauri off.

If the NDP is ahead of the Liberals nationally they will win Spadina-Fort York and Adam Vaughan will collect EI. It's a classic swing seats where people will vote mostly based on the national swing. Olivia chow brings one important thing to the table and that's universal name recognition. Also having her run a agin would be another signal of NDP momentum and would be a boost across Toronto

Lots of people run for different things at different times. Jack Layton had been on city council for 8 years when he decided to give that up and run for mayor of Toronto. He lost badly. Then he ran for parliament in 1993 and came in 4th, then he got elected to city council in 1994, then he ran for parliament again in 1997 and lost by a wide margin, then back to city council, then he ran for national leader of the NDP ....

But maybe Layton was just an opportunist running for public office at different levels and should have just known his place just been a lowly city councillor only and never aspired to anything higher level.

The only real weakness with Olivia Chow's mayoral campaign was her mediocre communication skills in a presidential style 9 month long campaign that was focused 100% on "performance" and ability to debate etc... running for a seat in parliament is a totally different affair. For all the knocks on Chow's mayoral campaign, she still managed to get a very credible 24% of the vote - even in the face of a massive campaign by the maisntream media and all the elites to bully people into voting for John Tory to stop the Fords...she didn't go down to 9% like Barbara Hall or 11% like Pantalone and by the end of the campaign her approval numbers were still very much in positive territory...especially in the downtown core.

I wouldn't underestimate the Fords. They have no shame as well as an abnormal sense of entitlement to be in top positions of power. They are like cod liver oil which keeps burping back up at you every time you think you have it all behind you.

 Olivia Chow doesn't have French skills or even the English skills to be a successor to Tom Mulcair, plus some people resent her refusal to endorse Joe Cressily during the race vs. Adam Vaughan. Pragmatics mean setting that aside to unseat Adam, but Successor, no, Cabinate Post yes. 

 For successor I think Megan Leslie, Nathan Cullen, Niki Ashton, Peter Julian, or perhaps a surprise choice from Quebec.

Yes, the successor will have to be fluent in French as well as English. I see that Niki Ashton speaks several languages. Actually, I doubt that the NDP in power would want a successor from Québec.

A lot can happen in a few years. I fully expect that the NDP will have years of credibility in Quebec, plus a few other rising young stars in the party. It will be time for a new generation.

After he loses to Olivia Chow i guess Adam Vaughan could spend the next three years planning to run against John Tory for mayor in 2018

I love Olivia, but she would have a very, very tough time winning Spadina-Fort York. If University-Rosedale or Toronto Centre were open, I'd say do it. Keep in mind that the bulk of the NDP's support in current Trinity-Spadina is now in University-Rosedale, like Little Italy, U of T, Chinatown (2/3 of it), Kensington, Harbord Village and Seaton Village. 

South of Dundas, it is is Adam Vaughan's prime demo. Vaughan appeals so well to the sensibilities of the Toronto condo crowd. He speaks in the language of the upper-middle class, high-consumption, creative, and bourgeois-soft left types. The type of crowd that supports issues like public transit and sustainability, but whose eyes glaze over when the NDP talk about labour rights or social justice. Even with current Liberal numbers dropping, Chow would be in a very, very difficult fight. 

This shows Olivia as the opportunist that she is.

In 2012 she asked point blank if she was running for Mayor. She swore up and down that she had ZERO interest in running.

(this was in an interview with the now defunct newspaper The Grid)

The next two years while the polls showed she would win hands down, she repeatedly said she had no interest in running.

All the while, she had started to put together a mayoral campaign team.

Then when she was running for mayor she said her career as an MP was OVER. She had no interest in going back.

Then she threw her protege Joe Cressy under the bus by refusing to endorse him, as she didn't want the label of the NDP candidate for mayor.

She pissed off some NDPers that is for sure.

(but she didn't have a problem endorsing him for city council months later, as she needed the votes herself)

Now that the NDP might form governmenr, guess who has jumped on the bandwagon?

POWER, that is all Olivia really loves.

She left Federal politics to have more power as mayor. When that didn't work out, she is now trying to hitch a ride on a surging NDP in hopes of being a cabinet minister.

It is all about Power for Olivia Chow.

Todrick of Chatsworth wrote:

Terry, she is a lying politician. By the way you are acting; you would almost believe this isn't a normal action for her and other politicians.

Just pointing it out to people who think of her as Saint Olivia

Being Chinese myself (like Olivia) and having grown up in her riding, I've had her as my 1) school trustee 2) city councillor.  I've seen first hand how she operates.

Many many many people in the Asian community in Trinity-Spadina can't stand her because of her opportunisim.

Which is why she lost Trinity-Spadina twice. Many in the Chinese community voted AGAINST her. They actually perferred Tony Ianno over her!

When she did win, the votes were not for her. But for Jack Layton.

Layton was FAR more popular in Trinity-Spadina Asian community than Chow. Everyone in the Chinese community dismisses her as an opportunist.

You would think the huge Chinese community in the City of Toronto would rally around her (especially in Chinese heavy Scarborough) for the mayor's race. Living in Scarborough today I didn't even see her attend one campaign event in Scarborough. To reach out to the Chinese community. But she doesn't connect with them, as they perferred Tory or even Ford.

She takes the Chinese base for granted. Cause of that there is a TON of resentment against her from the Chinese community.

In Spadina-Fort York they will vote AGAINST her, because they cannot stand her. They perfer Adam Vaughan.

mark_alfred wrote:

Olivia never denied that she was thinking of running for mayor.  She just was never definitive in an answer.  The same was true of John Tory.  No one know whether or not he intended to run until he finally entered the race.

Unfortunately The Grid TO is now defunct. The reporter asked her in every conceiveable way if she was interested. She said no, no, no.

Olivia was clear NO she is not running for mayor.

terrytowel wrote:

mark_alfred wrote:

Olivia never denied that she was thinking of running for mayor.  She just was never definitive in an answer.  The same was true of John Tory.  No one know whether or not he intended to run until he finally entered the race.

Unfortunately The Grid TO is now defunct. The reporter asked her in every conceiveable way if she was interested. She said no, no, no.

Olivia was clear NO she is not running for mayor.

Oh bullshit.  Long before she could officially declare her candidacy it was pretty clear she was considering it.  From this Star article, published many months before she could officially enter in the race:

Quote:

“I’m thinking about it,” she says, during a Sunday evening interview in the south Annex home she shared with Jack Layton until his death from cancer in 2011. It’s early June and she’s curled on a couch in the living room where Layton passed away only a few months after leading the federal New Democrats to Official Opposition status that May.

ETA:  She did say "no" when asked over two years before the election date in early 2012, which I suppose you're referring to.  But later in 2012 did soften her position on it.  http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2012/09/27/olivia_chow_sounding_wa... I don't see the big deal here.

Double Post

 Is James Lockyer interested in the NDP nomination? If you'd prefer Lockyer TT, you'd better get on this and start emailing him TT, encourage him to try for the nomination.

Brachina wrote:

 Is James Lockyer interested in the NDP nomination? If you'd prefer Lockyer TT, you'd better get on this and start emailing him TT, encourage him to try for the nomination.

Lockyer is interested. He reached out to Chow months ago and she said she wasn't running. He's quoted in the original article linked in this thread.

Wow, when terrytowel was trying to tell us IT'S OVER for the Liberals, he may have been right:

Mulcair Keeping Fingers Crossed For Olivia Chow Comeback
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/06/29/thomas-mulcair-olivia-chow-2015-...

Mulcair called Chow a "tremendous person, a wonderful politician, an experienced woman."

"I'd love to have her as part of our team," he said. "I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she decides to do just that."

The nomination meeting for the new riding of Spadina-Fort York, which includes most of Chow's old riding, has not yet been set. Mulcair said he anticipates Chow will get the nomination "rather quickly" if she decides to go for it.

A CP24 reporter asked Chow about her intentions during Toronto's Pride parade Sunday. While the ex-MP said she was happy teaching, Chow admitted there are some things in federal politics that bother her.

"Like (Bill) C-51," she said, referring to the Conservative government's anti-terror legislation. "How could anyone say that they oppose it and then they vote for it?"

When pressed, she told the reporter she was "possibly" considering a run.

 

NorthReport wrote:

Can someone please dig out that Now Newspaper article about how the LIberals and the Conservatives secretly got together and decided on one candidate John Tory, to stop Olivia Chow. 

Not to STOP Olivia, but to STOP Ford.

socialdemocraticmiddle wrote:

Wow, when terrytowel was trying to tell us IT'S OVER for the Liberals, he may have been right:

But it is so opportunistic of Olivia to jump on the bandwagon.

Were was she when the NDP was so low polls. Now that they are leading, all of a sudden she wants back in?

Catchfire wrote:

But cripes does that woman know how to win an MP seat. She and her team will run poor Adam Vaughn into the concrete.

That is news to Tony Ianno who BEAT her not once, but twice.

Yeah she got lucky the third time. But people were voting for Jack Layton, not Olivia.

For Justin Trudeau and the Liberals IT'S OVER!

But in Spadina-Fort York if Olivia runs, Adam Vaughan will win.

Take it from someone in the Chinese community who used to live there.

95% of the Chinese community in Spadina-Fort York can't stand her and will vote for Adam Vaughan.

Misfit wrote:

TT, if she only received 5% of the support from the Chinese community in Trinity-Spadina, she would not have won those elections.

Because they were voting for Jack Layton NOT for her.

In the Chinese community Jack Layton is beloved. But not Chow who we all in the Chinese community see as an opportunist.

When she was contemplating a run for Mayor, she outpolled Adam Vaughan downtown by a mile. And even in her loss, with John Tory on the rise, she dominated downtown with almost 50% of the vote. 

You were right the first time, Terry. It's OVER for the Liberals.

Olivia with 44+% in both Trinity-Spadina wards.

That's always been good enough to win the riding at the federal level.

You're right Terry, IT'S OVER for the Liberals in Trinity-Spadina.