Olivia Chow: Fresh cookies and Rob Ford’s antics can’t distract her from Toronto’s transit woes

When Olivia Chow met up with Yahoo Canada News to bake cookies in downtown Toronto, she arrived on a bicycle. A pink one, with a basket of flowers on the back.

She took a moment to straighten those flowers before entering the home and coming into the kitchen. The Toronto mayoral candidate then announced with no shame that she was about to enter uncharted territory.

After 23 years in public office, first as a Toronto city councillor and then as an NDP Member of Parliament, she had been asked to do something she had never done before.

“This is my first batch of cookies,” she confessed, studying a kitchen counter covered in ingredients with a smile on her face.

Still, by the end of the day she seemed to be a natural. The batch came out of the oven almost perfectly. About half of them were adorned with toppings in the shape of a C for Chow. The cookies looked like tiny, edible campaign buttons.

But despite her new-found knack for decorating cookies, her run for mayor was never far from mind.

“We have the most diverse city," Chow said while strategically placing Skor bits on flattened cookie dough. "We are unique in the world because we have people from all corners of the world living harmoniously. But we need a better mayor. We need a new mayor.”

The actions and behaviour of Toronto’s current mayor, Rob Ford, rarely slip far from the headlines. His confessed drug use, admitted drunken stupors and a series of public comments, ranging from boorish and crude to sexist, homophobic and racially offensive, have captured attention around the world.

Most recently, Ford announced he would take a leave of absence as the public learned about another video purportedly showing him smoking crack cocaine and audio of Ford ranting and making sexually aggressive comments about mayoral candidate Karen Stintz.

Chow joined other competitive mayoral candidates in decrying Ford’s antics, calling it “long past time” that Toronto had a mayor that respected the city. She did not, however, call for Ford to resign from the mayoral election. Instead, she said voters would have their chance to replace him on Election Day.

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The question of Ford’s behaviour and admitted previous drug use came up as Chow prepared a batch of cookies, but more often than not the conversation returned to the question of transit, another issue expected to be integral to a successful mayoral campaign.

Considering the sorry state of the public transit system and the city's increasingly-congested roads and highways, that may not be surprising. And it is clear Chow knows the election could be won or lost on a candidate’s transit strategy.

She briefly outlined her plan to fix congestion – a three-tiered strategy to improve bus service, rail lines and eventually expand the subway grid.

"We are paying more for TTC but we are getting less service. We need better public transit so more people will take transit and there will be less gridlock," Chow said.

"We need immediate buses. In the medium term, LRTs. The one in Scarborough, we need to get it done. We are already four years behind ... Long term, we need the relief line. Wow, we are jam-packed. Try to get in on College and Yonge and you're not getting onto the subway."

Chow offered further insight into her transit plan in a speech to the Toronto Board of Trade. In it, Chow said she be willing to borrow up to $1 billion, which would go toward paying for across-the-board transit improvements, repairs and expansion. Her plan to back out of the city's current plan to build a four-stop subway line in Scarborough and return to the previous, less expensive, seven-stop light-rail strategy, has drawn fire. And she has refused to put a date on when a downtown relief line might be completed under her plan.

[ Related: Mayoral race gets goofy with 'Twister Chow' and plea for dancing ]

“I hope our city’s willingness to invest in our needs will bring Ottawa and Queen’s Park to the table," she said in her speech. "Because we have to get people moving faster, by fixing and improving existing service and building new service.”

With the smell of baking cookies filling the kitchen, the mayoral candidate took a moment to wash her hands before returning to the conversation about traffic congestion in Toronto.

Chow says she walks and cycles in Toronto in equal measure, but the accessibility of some areas of the city needs to be improved. “It is hard for pedestrians, especially if you are older, to cross the street at times," Chow said. She suggested we ask children how to improve that. After all, they don’t drive.

Chow also said potholes need to be filled – a common political refrain. And she fielded questions about the fate of the Gardiner Expressway, a raised highway that feeds into the downtown core.

The aging structure's facade has been crumbling for years and some have argued it is time to tear the structure down; Mayor Rob Ford has come out in favour of preserving the entirety of the Gardiner, while fellow mayoral candidate John Tory has not yet made his stance public.

Chow says she is not in favour of tearing down the entire Gardiner, but an upcoming study that suggests removing the easternmost tip has caught her interest.

That study, expected to be officially released later this spring, will detail a hybrid option which leaves the main part of the Gardiner standing while removing a portion of the expressway that does not connect to other major arteries. Chow said the plan would allow the city to "open up that area for good development."

[ Related: Olivia Chow apologizes for photo-op with wrestler Iron Sheik ]

As the cookies bake, the conversation touched on several other topics, from the red tape small business owners face to the public and personal failings of the current mayor. "There is a yearning for change. People are really tired of Rob Ford,” she said. “They say, 'enough is enough.' It is time for change, time for a better city."

But even that topic invariably returns to transit, and the money being committed to the Scarborough subway project. She repeated that replacing the subway plan with an LRT line will be more cost efficient, provide better service and get construction finished four years sooner.

“He’s actually wasting $1 billion with this whole Scarborough subway. We don’t need to have 30 years of property tax increases. Rather than saving, he’s actually adding $1 billion to your tax bill,” she said.

Finally, the cookies finished baking and were pulled from the oven. They turned out well, and taste even better. Chow snacks on one adorned with her logo, picking it into the shape of Pac-Man.

Soon she’ll be back on the campaign trail, where she’ll be grilled again about her transit strategy. And next time, there won't be cookies.

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