Left-leaning politician enters race against embattled Toronto mayor

TORONTO – A left-leaning politician popular in liberal downtown Toronto kicked off her campaign to replace Rob Ford on Thursday, setting up a showdown with the conservative mayor who vows he will win despite the drug scandal engulfing him.

Olivia Chow, who resigned from her Parliament seat earlier this week ahead of her campaign launch, made no mention during her speech of the incidents of drug use, drunken public appearances and erratic behavior that have given Ford international notoriety. But she said the mayor has disappointed his city.

“The current mayor is failing at his job, and he is no role model for my granddaughters,” Chow said at a packed church hall. “We deserve better. It’s time for a change.”

A Hong Kong native who immigrated to Canada when she was 13, Chow is the widow of Jack Layton, the leader of the leftist New Democrat party who died of cancer in 2011.

She is the only prominent left-leaning candidate in a crowded field of right-of-center contenders in the Oct. 27 election.

Ford has rebuffed pressure to resign since admitting to smoking crack cocaine last year. The Toronto City Council stripped him of most of his powers in an effort to isolate him but it lacked the authority to force him out.