Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow Praises Drake As City Pride During Album Rollout

Drake got flowers from City Hall this week, and not the usual kind. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow publicly endorsed the 6 God as a source of pride for the entire city, especially after his theatrical rollout for three surprise albums that literally froze the CN Tower with projection-mapped ice effects.

Politics and Hip-Hop don’t always overlap, but Chow wasn’t playing politics, and she meant it.

The mayor’s support came amid Drake’s massive week. He dropped three albums Thursday night: ICEMAN, Maid of Honour, and Habibti, and he did it with maximum Toronto flex.

The streaming services crashed due to traffic. The projections on the tower created a cityscape moment that drew thousands of people to rush downtown to witness it.

“You’re welcome Iceman. @champagnepapi is a big booster of our city. Happy to host his team at City Hall,” she wrote.

Chow’s endorsement wasn’t just a casual shout-out either. She went a step further when Drake responded with a thank-you note, deliberately misspelling her name “Crodi Colivia Chow.”

It’s playful disrespect wrapped in gratitude, and she handled it with humor. Most politicians would fumble that exchange, but Chow leaned in.

Toronto’s always been Drake’s home base, but having the mayor publicly stake her reputation on him being a city asset shifts something. It legitimizes what he does outside the music industry: cultural production, branding and the ability to shut down an entire city’s attention in one night.

The irony, of course, is that Drake’s been taking shots at everyone from Kendrick to Rick Ross to Jay-Z on these new albums.

He’s been divisive as hell. But Toronto doesn’t care about his beefs. Toronto cares that one of theirs is commanding global attention.