Unconventional Candour

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. .