Jack and Olivia: Their love story

"It was 1985 that we first met," Jack Layton says of Olivia Chow, pictured together in 1997. "We'd known of each other before that, but the moment of first attraction was at an auction we were doing for a hospital. I was the auctioneer."

The Toronto Star:

This story first appeared in the Star on Jan. 3, 1999.

Politics is what drives Jack Layton and Olivia Chow – and what brought them together. The Toronto city councillors met 13 years ago when she was running for school trustee and he for city council, both of them for the New Democratic Party. Layton, 48, grew up in Montreal and has a Ph.D. in political science. He teaches at the University of Toronto. Chow, 41, came to Canada in 1970 from Hong Kong and attended the Ontario College of Art and worked as a sculptor before getting involved in social activism and politics. She also teaches at George Brown College. The two live in downtown Toronto with Chow's mother and Layton's two children from a previous marriage.

JACK: It was 1985 that we first met. We'd known of each other before that, but the moment of first attraction was at an auction we were doing for a hospital, I was the auctioneer. It was for a largely Cantonese-speaking crowd, held at Village by the Grange, and Olivia was the translator.

I found myself doing this auction with this absolutely stunning, drop-dead gorgeous, amazing woman and realizing that she was also going to be running in the upcoming election. So we thought we should go and have lunch together, and talk about the campaign. We ended up campaigning together later, and smooching in the hallways of downtown Toronto apartment buildings.

It was definitely a love-at-first-sight situation, and we've had an absolutely wonderful, joyous life ever since.

Continue reading here.