Councillor's comments on Chow's age at 1st council meeting as Toronto mayor spark backlash

Comments made by a Toronto city councillor about newly-elected mayor Olivia Chow’s age during her first council meeting since assuming the role have sparked backlash.

The comments were made by Eglinton - Lawrence Councillor Mike Colle at Wednesday’s council meeting as he spoke on a group of asylum seekers sleeping on the streets outside of a Toronto shelter over recent weeks.

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Colle praised Chow for finding solutions with the provincial and federal government on the issue in her first days as mayor. Last week, Chow called on all levels of government to address the growing number of refugees sheltering on the streets of Toronto – a request met with a $97 million federal investment earmarked for the city.

“She’s approaching [the issue] in a collaborative way,” Colle said during the council meeting. “She’s being nice with Dougie and nice with the guys in Ottawa.”

READ MORE: Chow calls for 250 more shelter beds for refugees as key item in 1st council meeting as Toronto mayor

Colle continued to praise Chow’s character, calling her “charming.” While expressing his support for the new mayor, the councillor repeatedly called her a “young lady.”

 “She’s a very charming young lady — I used to know her as a young lady once upon a time,” Colle said. “She’s still a young lady – a young mayor.”

Chow is 66.

While Colle’s office acknowledged CTV News Toronto’s repeated requests for a statement, a response was not provided by the deadline. The Mayor’s office declined the opportunity to share a comment.

A tweet shared by city hall reporter and Humber College professor Matt Elliott transcribing Colle's words has garnered more than 50,000 views since Wednesday. Viewers of the meeting, along with those who later became aware of the comments, were quick to critique Colle’s wording, with some suggesting the comments were reflective of misogyny women in public roles often face. In response to Elliott's tweet, one Toronto user said the comments served as an example of how “not to talk about women in politics."

Chi Nguyen, executive director at Equal Voice, a multi-partisan non-profit organization that works to have more women elected to office in Canada, said the comments Chow faced, while likely not intentional, reflect a larger barrier that women face in the field.

“There's probably no intended offence with those comments,” Nguyen told CTV News Toronto Friday. “But in the larger context of how we often describe women's lives in politics, [..] the idea of calling her a ‘young lady’ when she's clearly a woman who has deep experience is a little uncomfortable and not connected to what's actually going on.”

The comments take away from Chow’s “depth of experience,” Nguyen said, rather than acknowledging her prior accomplishments and what she brings forward.

Gendered stereotypes play out in a myriad of ways for women of all different ages and backgrounds when occupying public-facing roles, she explained.

"If you're a woman in politics in your 20s and 30s, it's like, 'How are you going to do this? You must have a young family,' all of these assumptions play out, but if you're older, you're past you're prime," Nguyen said.

"It's as though we can't win. It's reductionist and deeply sexist"

Newly elected Mayor Olivia Chow, makes her way towards a press conference outside Toronto City Hall, on Wednesday, July 12, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin

'WORK TO BE DONE' FOR WOMEN IN POLITICS, ADVOCATES SAY

A report by Equal Voice released in 2022 found that perceptions that prevent women from running for political office in Canada are widespread. The report surveyed 1,500 Canadian female residents aged 18 to 30.

According to its findings, 73 per cent of the respondents reported not feeling invited or welcomed to run for office was a deterrent for them.

Monique Nicholas, the spokesperson for Women Transforming Cities, a grassroots organization that seeks to empower women in local government, says women and gender non-conforming people often experience negative and undermining comments about their identity that diminish their capability as leaders rather than focusing on the outcomes of their decisions.

“This culture of behavior, which we see in all levels of government, reinforces the idea that people from under-represented communities don’t belong in positions of power,” Nicholas said in a statement to CTV News Toronto Friday.

“There is a lot of work to be done to break down the barriers that exclude people from local government,” she added.

Nguyen echoed these sentiments while simultaneously taking the opportunity to highlight the progress already made.

“Toronto city council is starting to look more like [the population of] Toronto does,” she said, pointing to the recent election of nine new faces to city council in October 2022. That election saw Ausma Malik voted into office, marking the first hijab-wearing Muslim woman to sit on Toronto council.

“When you bring new lived experiences in, you're going to have a different lens and it's going to result in new ways of thinking about solutions for our complex problems,” she said.

This shift in demographics can spark the kinds of “generational change” needed to evolve the institution towards a more equitable reality, she said, adding moments like those at Wednesday’s council meeting can act as learning opportunities to craft a better future.

"It's part of the unlearning we all have to do all the time."