OTTAWA - The federal Liberals have placed their hopes for scaling up Canada's affordable housing stock in Ana Bailão, a former Toronto city councillor.

Bailão spent 12 years at Toronto City Hall starting in 2010 and directed a number of affordable housing initiatives there.

As a chair of the city's planning and housing committee, she pushed for exclusions to higher development charges on infill projects with four or fewer units. She also defended a bylaw to allow garden suites as a form of gentle density on existing Toronto lots.

She served as deputy to former mayor John Tory for five years until 2022 and ran to replace him after his resignation the following year, finishing 34,000 votes short of current mayor Olivia Chow.

When Bailão announced plans to leave municipal politics, she wa

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