In her first campaign event since announcing her candidacy, Toronto mayoral hopeful Olivia Chow told supporters it's time to "replace all that nonsense that comes with Rob Ford."

The former NDP MP made the comment during her "Rally for a Better City" event on Sunday afternoon. The rally was emceed by Chow's stepson, Ward 19 Trinity-Spadina city councillor Mike Layton.

"It is time to return to the tradition of working together to get things done and that's the way it will be after we replace Rob Ford and after we replace all that nonsense that comes with Rob Ford," Chow told a crowd of supporters at a North York hotel during a 15-minute speech.

"We will get this city moving again."

Chow, who is leading the pack of mayoral hopefuls according to the latest Forum Research poll , didn't unveil any details of her platform, but she spoke on the importance of putting children "at the heart of the city."

On Chow's website, oliviachow.ca, the wife of late NDP leader Jack Layton focuses on three policies: children, jobs and transit.

"Working together, family by family, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. We will make our city better for all of us," Chow says on her website.

On Sunday, Chow also talked about "minding the public purse" if she is elected to Toronto's top political office. She also reiterated her support for scrapping the Scarborough subway in favour of a light-rail transit line.

"I have too much respect for the people of Scarborough to tell them that they must wait another 10 years before they get better transit," Chow said. "We already have wasted four years and we can do better than that. We can put shovels in the ground now and build a better train service four years faster with four more stops and for $1 billion less."

With files from CP24