TORONTO - Anti-poverty activist Cathy Crowe has spent decades waging her fight at street level and is now seeking a seat in the provincial legislature, saying the Liberal government's social policy and its wasteful spending compelled her to make the leap.
Crowe is well-known for providing emergency care to homeless people and animating community action to prevent poverty and homelessness. As an outspoken critic of the social policies of former Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris, she led massive demonstrations as housing and social assistance dollars were cut, sending a flood of people into the streets.
Crowe even formed the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, an organization that declared homelessness a national disaster 11 years ago, thinking social injustice had reached a low-point.
"We saw things then, like clusters of homeless deaths, outbreaks of tuberculosis, people just shocked by the fact that they were suddenly homeless," said Crowe, who is running for the New Democrats in next week's Toronto Centre byelection.
"We were actually traumatized by what we saw, and we didn't think it would get worse. But things are worse, there's no question about it, and that's been the last six years."
There are now growing waiting lists for child care and affordable housing, shelters and out-of-the-cold programs find themselves at full capacity, more homeless people are dying and illnesses like TB are resurfacing -- all without help or funding from the government, Crowe said.
"In the first couple of years of (Premier Dalton) McGuinty's government, if he had adequately raised welfare rates, ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) rates, food allowances on people's cheques, minimum wage, infrastructure money, there would have been a cushion today," she said.
"You have literarily six years of little pieces of crumbs given to people."
The byelection to replace former deputy premier George Smitherman, who stepped down to run for mayor of Toronto, will take place Feb. 4. Crowe will be going up against former Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray, who's carrying the Liberal banner, and Progressive Conservative Pam Taylor, who finished a distant second behind Smitherman in the 2007 general election.
The riding includes Canada's largest gay community and some of its richest citizens in Rosedale. It's also home to some of its poorest in Regent Park, the country's oldest public housing project, as well as the huge high rises of St. Jamestown, home to wave after wave of new immigrants.
Friends describe Crowe as a passionate, warm, dedicated advocate of social justice who will bring a rational, practical tone to discussions about poverty.
"She is probably one of the most effective advocates that I ever met because she doesn't by nature yell and scream and beat her breast," said John Andras, Chair of the Recession Relief Committee and a vice-president at Research Capital Corp.
"She uses logic and proposes solutions and allows the logic of her arguments to speak for her."
Crowe, a trained nurse, has fought for improved shelter facilities in Toronto and has helped bring renewed funding to affordable housing across Canada, winning several awards as well as receiving honourary degrees from McMaster University, the University of Ottawa, and the University of Victoria.
Despite critics' assertions that Crowe's focus on social justice would make her a one-issue candidate, Andras said she's equally knowledgeable about maters like health care, and is skilled at dealing with budgeting processes after sitting on panels and alternate budget committees for years.
"She actually has a very well-rounded knowledge of government priorities, of the decision-making process of how when you take from one pocket you're giving to another, and how the prioritization of a very limited pool of capital works," he said.
At Queen's Park, Andras added, "she can act as a conscience and also as a practical proposer of solutions."
Crowe herself said she's received support from across party lines as well as from a cross-section of society, and has received several high-profile endorsements including author Naomi Klein, and actor/director Sarah Polley.
Crowe said her first priorities if she wins the seat will be based on what people in her riding are asking for. That includes things like fighting for more community space for tenants in St. Jamestown, addressing safety issues and providing better access to vitamin D testing.
She said she'd also like to take community organizing to the legislature like fellow New Democrat Cheri DiNovo, and make her office available to support community activism and rallies.
DiNovo, who took her seat in Toronto's Parkdale-High Park riding from the Liberals in an upset byelection win in 2006, said Crowe's principled approach to the issues would be a welcome addition to the NDP's anti-poverty fight.
"The poor are worse off now that under Harris," DiNovo said.
"We tend to demonize Harris, and I think there's something to that, because he's the one that slashed the welfare rates, but the reality is that under Dalton McGuinty, even though there's more of a Teflon coating on things, the reality is much worse."
