5 Feet of Fury

Smitherman: The Man Who Almost Became Toronto’s Crazy Mayor — My NEW Taki’s piece

Thanks to my editor for coming up with that headline, which says what I should have spelled out in my column:

That to thousands of normal, non-elite Torontonians, it’s George Smitherman — not Rob Ford — who is the “weird” one…

Anyway, I anticipate mostly non-“JOOOOO!!!!!”-y comments but you never know…

Then a police dog found his “husband” curled up near some railway tracks.

The day before, on September 10 of last year, Smitherman had reported Peloso missing. Wall-to-wall local media coverage led some to mutter that the disappearance of a lowlier adult civilian would never have garnered such attention or witnessed such a large and speedy outlay of police resources.

Were drugs involved? Smitherman and Peloso had met on Toronto’s gay scene, and the former fairly boasted about his one-time addiction to “party drugs,” contrasting himself favorably to that tacky crack smoker Ford.

Whatever prompted Peloso’s brief peregrinations, they were more or less forgotten as the Ford saga chugged along.

Then Peloso wandered off again. This time, the outcome was tragic…