Chow is a former Canadian politician who served as federal New Democratic Party Member of Parliament for Trinity-Spadina from 2006–2014, and Toronto city councillor from 1991 to 2005. Chow is the widow of former NDP and Opposition Leader Jack Layton; they were married from 1988 until his death from cancer in 2011. She was a candidate in the 2014 Toronto mayoral election, where she placed third behind winner John Tory and runner-up Doug Ford.
Chow won the Trinity—Spadina riding for the New Democratic Party on January 23, 2006, becoming a member of the House of Commons of Canada. In 2011, she was re-elected in her riding for her third straight win. She speaks Cantonese, Mandarin and English. In May 2012, Chow was named one of the top 25 Canadian immigrants in Canada by Canadian Immigrant magazine. Chow's personal memoir, titled My Journey, was published January 21, 2014. Chow resigned her seat in parliament on March 12, 2014, to run in the 2014 Toronto mayoral election. Following her mayoral election loss, Chow became a distinguished visiting professor at Ryerson University from 2015 to 2018.

At the age of seven he immigrated to Canada with his parents settling in Winnipeg and later Lakeville, King's County, Nova Scotia. He received his early education in Kentville at the King's County Academy and later at Sir George Williams College in Montreal and Dalhousie University. From an early age, Antoft was interested in hostelling and, while still in his teens, founded the Nova Scotia branch of the Canadian Hostelling Association (1938). He served as a Royal Canadian Air Force navigator from 1943 to 1946 and settled in Montreal after the war, where he founded two successful businesses: Viking Air Service and Nordic Biochemicals Ltd. After twenty years in corporate administration, Antoft sold his businesses and moved to Toronto (1966) where he became the Assistant Executive Director of the National Cancer Institute of Canada. In 1969 Antoft moved back to Nova Scotia after Guy Henson, Director of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), recruited him to assume the Assistant Directorship of the IPA. In 1977, Antoft succeeded Guy Henson as Director. At the end of this term in 1984, he became a professor (research) at the IPA (which later merged into Henson College of Public Affairs and Continuing Education) and a professor in the School of Public Administration at Dalhousie University. In Nova Scotia, he continued his involvement with the CCS, and for more than twenty years served as a member of its Nova Scotia Division, with a two-year term as President from 1980 to 1982.

He worked in various capacities with ski clubs and programs in Canada and was involved in the Katimavik program for youth, later becoming president. He was also involved in politics. He was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Heritage Hall of Fame (2000) and became a Member of the Order of Canada (2001).