Cynthia Lai believes in Cynthia Lai.There are other things the realtor and first-term councillor for Ward 23 (Scarborough North) believes in — like subways. Perched at a bistro table by the window of her small office with dark violet walls, in a Markham commercial building across the street from a plaza populated by Chinese merchants selling food, she leans forward conspiratorially, inviting her listener to lean in, too, over a WeChat message glowing brightly on her mobile phone. She translates a text written in Chinese, beneath a photo of a map of the Tokyo subway.The message is from a constituent, travelling in Asia. “I’m counting on you,” Lai translates. “I want the Sheppard subway to be extended and I want this type of subway to be in Toronto.”Lai laughs. The Tokyo subway is so far ahead of Toronto’s, it seems like a fairy tale.“I’m a subway champion. Any world-class city, the first thing they do is build transit,” says Lai, adding that she has been told that potential ridership is not sufficient to support a subway extension along the Sheppard line.“We have to be visionary. With the population growth, you don’t wait for the ridership.”She believes it’s possible to create ridership, although she is, for now, not specific about the details.“I’m not inside yet.”Soon, she will be. Lai was one of four new faces elected to Toronto city council in the Oct. 22 election. The first council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.Yes, Cynthia Lai believes in subways.But her foundational belief — the one that has driven her from poverty to prosperity, from a rooming house in Toronto’s Chinatown, populated by cockroaches and rats, to ownership of Global Link Realty Group Inc., a firm with 30 realtors — is that Cynthia Lai has the energy and drive and people skills to get things done.“If people like you, they trust you and you can sell them anything,R ...
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