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Biography & Autobiography Political

Unconventional Candour

The Life and Times of George Smitherman

by (author) George Smitherman

Publisher
Dundurn Press
Initial publish date
May 2019
Category
Political, General, Canadian
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781770865211
    Publish Date
    Apr 2018
    List Price
    $24.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781459744677
    Publish Date
    May 2019
    List Price
    $11.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781459744653
    Publish Date
    May 2019
    List Price
    $22.99

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Description

George Smitherman tells all about his successes and failures as a politician — in Ontario's legislature and in Toronto's city hall — and shares the joys and sorrows of his personal life.

From modest beginnings, George Smitherman rose to become one of the most powerful politicians in Ontario and then plummeted, defeated by one of the most notorious: Rob Ford. This memoir takes readers on the roller-coaster ride of his career and his personal life as a gay man struggling with the constraints of society and family.

Smitherman offers candid insights into the hardball politics of city hall and the provincial legislature, as well as the Liberal government under Dalton McGuinty, including accomplishments like prescription drug reforms and the green energy plan, and the so-called eHealth, Ornge, and gas plant scandals. He reveals how he lost the mayoral race but managed to rebound from that defeat, as well from the suicide of his husband.

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About the author

George Smitherman was born and raised in Toronto, began working in the backrooms of politics at a young age, and rose to become a senior minister and deputy premier in the Ontario government. He lives in Toronto.

George Smitherman's profile page

Excerpt: Unconventional Candour: The Life and Times of George Smitherman (by (author) George Smitherman)

Chapter One: Early Years

I was born just ten weeks after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, coming into the world on February 12, 1964. My mother, Margaret, was a devotee of Kennedy. She saw him as the champion of the underdog — the poor, the dispossessed, racial and religious minorities. His assassination affected her profoundly. My sister recalls her reacting hysterically to the images on television. Subsequently, the family made not one but two pilgrimages to the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington to see his gravesite.

My mother’s values came from her mother, my grandmother. My grandmother was born here and attended Jesse Ketchum school in Yorkville, a fact I learned from my mom on the day I was attending the school’s hundredth anniversary. She and my grandfather were working-class people. He had emigrated from St. Anne’s-on-the-Sea in Lancashire, England. They weren’t particularly religious — they were mildly Anglican. Nor were they involved in politics, although after my grandfather’s death, at a time when I was really young, I recall seeing a poster of Pierre Trudeau in their home.

But both my mother and grandmother possessed a social-justice streak. When my grandmother was working at my father’s trucking business, she was transported there daily by taxis driven almost exclusively by immigrants from Lebanon, who politicized her with respect to the treatment of Palestinians. Similarly, my mother was imbued with a sense of the injustices visited on the Indigenous Peoples in Canada through her brother, who married a First Nations woman.

And although they had limited formal education, they both had an interest in learning. To a very large degree, I am who I am because of the influence of my mother and grandmother.

I was the fourth, and last, of the Smitherman children. My older brother was first, born in 1956 and named after my father, Arthur. My sisters, Joanne and Christine, followed in 1958 and 1962, respectively. Over that period, my family’s economic circumstances improved markedly. I have always told everyone that I am the son of a trucker, and that is true. But by 1964 my father’s single coal-hauling dump truck that served all purposes (including grocery shopping) had evolved into a growing fleet of tractor-trailers. Just months after my birth, the family moved from a combined home-and-truck-yard on Jay Street near Keele Street and Lawrence Avenue to a newly built bungalow in the West Deane Park neighbourhood of central Etobicoke. The house had a backyard swimming pool and bordered on the Mimico Creek ravine.

This was a big step up for my parents, especially my father. He had experienced extreme poverty as a child and was forced out of school in Grade 6 to work for a living. My mother’s own background was barely better and remembered by my uncle (her brother) as a lot of living in basements with summers in shacks alongside the Credit River. My mother’s father worked as a mechanic at Avro, the aircraft manufacturer that built the Lancaster, the famed Second World War bomber, and, after the war, the Avro Arrow, the Canadian interceptor jet cancelled by the Diefenbaker government in 1959. Over the years, he was regularly away servicing planes at air force bases across eastern Canada. His job paid him a good wage, but he gambled much of it away.

My father’s father had the same gambling propensity, without a steady job to go with it. Perhaps in reaction, my father was driven to be a reliable provider for his family, although sometimes at the expense of being a nurturing parent. He worked seven days a week building up the trucking business. Up at six every morning, and not home before nightfall. So we didn’t see much of him. The exceptions to this rule were Sunday breakfast (which he cooked), a yearly holiday in Florida (to which we drove both ways straight through), and summer Saturday afternoons entertaining customers around our pool.

Editorial Reviews

This is the profoundly personal story of George Smitherman - the man and the politician. In his book, Unconventional Candour, he gives the reader a fascinating insight to his background and outlines the extraordinary influence of his family and friends in his developing a strong sense of community. He was instilled with a belief in the right to equality, the need to fight for justice, and a passion for progress while maintaining his independence. His savvy political instincts, from an early age, led him on a path to become fiercely loyal to the Liberal Party. With blunt honesty and intimate insights, Smitherman narrates the story of the dynamic political landscape of the 80’s and 90’s. He articulates, ‘I delighted in highlighting unsung heroes, and pride myself in my instinct to lift people and communities up.’ This is the strength of leadership we came to know. Five years ago, George’s husband Christopher died from suicide. George’s story is one of lived experience. It is told through the lens of a bereaved spouse, as only someone who has survived their partner can truly understand. If love could have saved him, Christopher would be alive today. George has come far on his journey to create a blessing from the darkness of watching a partner suffer, and experiencing tragic loss and infinite grief. The love of family and friends helped him through his grief. Most of all, the love from his adoring children helped to heal him, ‘from that day until now, my crew of two hugs-and-cuddles have filled the void and saved the day.’ Faced with adversity, trauma and tragedy, George’s resilience alchemized his grief into a force to be reckoned with. He turned tragedy into transformation and loss into legacy. Unconventional Candour will be a transformative read.

David Cooper, co-author of Bridge Over the River Why

George has been on a remarkable journey. Whether in the political arena or with regards to interpersonal struggles and triumphs, he always speaks honestly and emotionally and offers many life lessons along the way. It’s a story that would be a mirror to city life, family life or inner life. It’s also a tale that would have a strong impact on your own struggles and ultimately your resilience. Told with humor and yes, candor.

Alex Shendelman, Manager, Traumatic Loss Survivor Support Program

A remarkable book for a politician to write. Its searing honesty sets it apart.

J. S. Watt, Executive Chairman, Navigator

George Smitherman does what he has always done throughout his career: he tells it like it is … a must-read for political junkies.

Terry Fallis, two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour