Toronto MP Olivia Chow has confirmed long-running rumours she's considering making a bid for the city's top job.
During an appearance on the TV talk show George Stromboulopoulos Tonight Wednesday, Chow was asked whether she's decided to campaign to be mayor of Toronto.
Even before Chow had a chance to answer, the mere question elicited applause from the studio audience.
"I love this city. I love to come home to Toronto, but what I'm going to be doing, I don’t know yet," Chow said, explaining that she's listening to people's advice on the matter.
After suggesting "there are a lot of issues we need to tackle," she recalled that her late husband, former Toronto councillor and leader of the federal NDP Jack Layton once aspired to run the city.
"Maybe I want to be a mayor, too, but maybe not. Perhaps I won't be able to do it," Chow, herself a former Toronto city councillor, said.
"I am considering it."
In January, Chow disclosed that she was recovering from a nerve disorder that had affected the muscles in the left side of her face.
She called her bout of Ramsay Hunt syndrome type 2 "an inconvenience," but insisted her life was largely unaffected, and that she remained committed to her work in Ottawa representing the Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina as an NDP MP.
Speculation Chow would throw her hat in the ring ramped up late last year, as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s legal travails threw his future in the city’s top job into doubt.
Torontonians are next expected to head to the polls in a municipal election slated for October 2014.
