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Olivia Chow, the Toronto New Democrat who abandoned federal politics last year for an ill-fated mayoral run, announced her return Tuesday, setting up a progressive showdown with an old foe in a new Toronto riding.

Chow appeared beside federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair at a downtown Toronto daycare. With young children crying and laughing in the background, she told reporters she intends to compete in the upcoming federal election.

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“I’m running as an NDP member for Spadina-Fort York,” she said. “After 10 long years of Stephen Harper, his plan just isn’t working.”

Chow vowed to help deliver a national child care program, $15-an-hour minimum wage and a national transit plan if elected.

She called Mulcair “the only leader that can defeat Stephen Harper and bring about good public transit, a decent minimum wage for hard-working Canadians and hope for children.”

Though her pedigree in downtown Toronto politics is impeccable — a former city councillor, she long formed one half of the city’s most powerful political duo with her late husband, Jack Layton—Chow’s victory is by no means ensured.