OTTAWA

The mayors of Canada’s biggest cities landed here Thursday with a blunt message for the federal government.

Their cities are falling apart.

They came from Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon, Mississauga, Halifax, St. John’s, Nfld., and all cities in between to tell Ottawa traffic gridlock costs the Canadian economy $10 billion per year, that one out of every four city roads is congested, one in two needs immediate repair and lives are being endangered by crumbling infrastructure.

But the mayor of Canada’s biggest city didn’t bother.

Rob Ford — Stephen Harper’s fishing partner, barbecue buddy, the man who gave the Prime Minister the famous pre-election bear hug in 2011 — had a football game to coach.

It is no-shows and garbled priorities like this that has added an urgency to efforts in Toronto to find a “unity’ candidate to unseat Ford in 2014 and more and more it appears those efforts are leading to New Democrat MP Olivia Chow.

Chow is acting very much like a mayoral candidate, though she uses her duties as the MP for Trinity-Spadina as cover.

She had already endorsed the call by the big city mayors, using the crumbling Gardiner Expressway as a backdrop in urging Ottawa to send tax money back to Toronto so “we don’t have crumbling concrete falling on us several times a year.”

She has made the same case in op-ed submissions and in the House of Commons and in parliamentary committee.

Canadian cities invest $12 billion per year in local infrastructure and the mayors are urging the Harper government to commit $2.5 billion per year over 20 years for infrastructure improvements, money the mayors will match.

Their message was hardly news to anyone in a Canadian city driving around traffic lanes closed by falling concrete or sitting in urban gridlock on our expressways or bridges, or shoehorning themselves into overcrowded buses or subway cars.

Chow is a front-bencher, but no star in the federal NDP caucus, more like an elder stateswoman among the newbies.

In Ottawa, she does not even command the Toronto spotlight in party circles, yielding that in most cases to the party’s finance critic, Peggy Nash.

She can be a polarizing figure, no less so than her late husband, Jack Layton

When he died, few thought she had the political mettle to replace him, even had she wanted to.

But she works hard and has respect on all sides of the House and it is the cross-party respect that impresses those working to ensure that the anti-Ford vote does not splinter three or four ways in October, 2014.

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They are looking for one person to carry one banner and win the support of those who would back others like Adam Vaughan or Shelley Carroll.

They believe Chow can build the coalition needed, reaching beyond her downtown roots.

While Ford embarrasses Toronto — and if you think he is an embarrassment there, talk to people from other cities in this country — Chow exhibited grace and poise during the outpouring of grief over the death of Layton.

She has attended every gala event in Toronto, it would seem, for 25 years, with her fellow traveller and one-time mayoral aspirant, Layton, at her side.

“It was always Jack and Olivia,” said NDP strategist and Chow backer Joe Cressy. “She is one of those few Torontonians known by just that one name — Olivia.”

She speaks English and Cantonese and is a new Canadian herself, arriving here from Hong Kong at the age of 13. She has been a school trustee, a city councillor, a federal MP and a familiar face across the country. She is soon to be portrayed by Sook-Yin Lee in what is expected to be a positive CBC biopic of Layton.

In recent weeks, Chow has appeared at an abortion rights rally, a block party in Toronto’s west end following a string of sexual assaults and at a Queen’s Park demonstration in support of teachers. She appeared at Jian Ghomeshi’s book launch, spoke on personal grief at Beth Sholom Synagogue, recruited steelworkers for a program backing public transit, presented an award at Beverley School, pushed for lower airfares and a better witness protection program.

So far, Chow has encouragement, impressive polling data and time to decide. She has no team in place and if she declares an interest, the positive media coverage she enjoys will be tempered with words from detractors.

We’ll know soon whether Chow is merely flattered or has the hunger in her belly for a bigger job.

Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. tharper@thestar.ca

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