“Affordable, caring and safe” is Olivia Chow’s campaign slogan as she runs for re-election in 2026. Her platform focuses on building upon the policies she’s passed since becoming mayor of Toronto in 2023.

“In three years, we’ve shown what’s possible,” she said in a press release announcing her run for re-election, highlighting the City’s school meal program, frozen TTC fares, the hiring of more first responders, and new funding for housing from the provincial and federal governments.

On her Substack blog, Chow wrote that her priorities are transit, affordable housing, hiring frontline workers like paramedics and police, speeding up construction on the Gardiner Expressway, and reducing the number of homeless encampments.

While she raised property taxes in her first term, Chow now promises to keep future tax hikes near the rate of inflation. She has also committed to updating her fare-capping program on the TTC to make rides free for passengers once they’ve taken 10 trips in a single week. Currently, the program is monthly, and passengers ride for free only after taking 47 trips in a single month.

What has she done as mayor?

Chow raised property taxes each year of her first term, increasing them 9.5 percent in 2024 (the highest in 25 years), 6.5 percent in 2025, and 2 percent in 2026. The increased revenue to the City has been used to boost funding for services like transit and police. Under Chow, the city has also expanded library hours, provided free meals to public school students, and created new regulations for landlords.

The mayor introduced a new tax on “luxury” homes, charging buyers at least 4.4 percent on homes sold for more than $3 million. During Chow’s three year tenure the Toronto’s police budget increased $160 million, bringing the annual budget to $1.4 billion. The mayor’s office says the City has hired 720 more police officers, 150 firefighters, 361 paramedics and staff, and 90 911 call-takers. Under Chow, the Toronto Community Crisis Service pilot project, which dispatches mental health crisis workers to relevant 911 or 211 calls, was also made permanent and expanded citywide.

The TTC’s budget has received increases totalling $451.2 million over three years during Chow’s tenure, bringing its funding from the City to $1.48 billion annually. Chow froze fares on the TTC, introduced fare capping, and installed priority bus lanes on Dufferin Street and Eglinton Avenue East, and a priority streetcar lane on Bathurst Street.

Chow has also expanded the City’s school meals program, which now provides food to students at 764 schools, according to city staff.

In July 2025, Chow introduced a bylaw on “renovictions” which requires landlords to obtain a license before starting renovations that require tenants to move out. Her administration has also expanded a program that provides funding to non-profit housing organizations like co-ops to buy apartment buildings, which saw the acquisition of 19 buildings with 700 units in 2024.

Chow has butted heads with Ontario Premier Doug Ford over his plans for Billy Bishop airport and Ontario Place. But she dropped the City’s opposition to Ford’s Ontario Place redevelopment in late 2023, instead coming to an agreement with the province that secured as much as $1.2 billion in new operating funding over three years for Toronto.