She’s being touted as the politician who could topple Rob Ford in a mayor’s race next year.

So when NDP MP Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina) announces she’s coming to York University on Thursday to talk about her “new” plan to tackle the city’s hot transit file, there’s intense interest.

Chow, 55, a former Toronto councillor, isn’t above exploiting that attention. But she’s too savvy to tip her hand on specifics that could inform a campaign platform if she takes a run at city hall.

Her Thursday evening speech at the invitation of York’s Canadian Studies department will be about the continued quest for a national transit strategy — an idea Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has steadfastly ignored.

Chow is nevertheless moving ahead on designing a program she says could turn around the dim prospects plaguing Canadian cities when it comes to infrastructure.

Asked to speak specifically about Toronto’s crumbling Gardiner Expressway and chronic underfunding of the TTC, Chow simply says, “This is Toronto. We need a national program to make this work in Toronto.”

She won’t say precisely how much she’s prescribing that Ottawa contribute to a transit strategy. About 40 per cent of federal infrastructure funding goes to transit, says Chow.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has called on the federal government to boost its infrastructure spending to $5.75 billion annually for the next two decades, a $2.5 billion yearly increase.

A national transit strategy has to conform to some basic principles, says Chow. It has to be long-term and predictable — 20 years rather than the existing two- and three-year infrastructure programs, which are structured so that longer-term projects, such as Toronto’s new streetcars, don’t qualify for funding.

Three years ago, the federal government thumbed its nose at Toronto’s request for a contribution to the $1.25 billion cost, leaving the city to shoulder two-thirds of the cost. Queen’s Park agreed to cover the remaining $400 million.

A national transit fund has to grow with the economy and the population, factoring ridership growth forecasts into the funding formula. It has to have provincial and municipal funding and, wherever possible, it has to work in tandem with the other transit taxes being considered in the Toronto region right now.

Lastly, it has to encourage innovation, efficiency and sustainability, says Chow.

Asked which tax tools she favours among the dozen or so Toronto and its municipal neighbours are considering to pay for a massive $50 billion regional transit expansion, Chow won’t bite.

“No, let’s not pre-empt the public. It’s not a consultation if you already said, ‘I like this one,’” she says.

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Meantime, Chow has written to Toronto city councillors, including Ford, asking them to help pressure Ottawa into stepping up its infrastructure support.

The widow of late federal NDP leader Jack Layton says she is slowly recovering her smile after a virus affected the nerves in her face.

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