George Smitherman: the man Toronto wishes it had picked as mayor
Openly gay liberal now seems like a dream choice to some after antics of Rob Ford
This is the mayor Toronto could have had: George Smitherman, an openly gay liberal who overcame an admitted history of drug use to become Ontario's deputy premier.
Instead, Canada's largest city got Mayor Rob Ford, whose erratic behaviour and confessed crack cocaine and alcohol use while in office have embarrassed many fellow citizens, leading the city council to strip him of most of his powers last week.
If Toronto is a tale of two cities, the 49-year-old Smitherman represents the one better known to the world, the mainly liberal downtown of Canada's financial capital. Ford hails from the city's vast conservative suburbs, where he won over voters with promises to stop "the gravy train" of government spending and end a so-called "war on cars".
Smitherman, a polished politician, openly told voters during their 2010 campaign that he had beaten a five-year addiction to unspecified "party drugs" back in the 1990s. Ford attacked his opponent on those and other grounds, and won.
I think we were not aggressive enough in exposing his weaknesses
Now Ford's own drug history is emerging for the world to see. It turns out Toronto elected a mayor who recently admitted to smoking crack in the past year during one of his "drunken stupors", insists he is not an addict and refuses to resign or take a leave of absence.
Many in the city are shocked. Ford's former opponent is not.