When George Smitherman first heard that Rob Ford was thinking of running to be mayor of Toronto in 2010 he thought it was a joke.

Smitherman, who had entered the mayoral race months earlier, wasn’t worried because he was riding high in the polls and saw Ford as a “joke candidate” and “not a man for public office,” given Ford’s notorious background as a Toronto city councillor.

But Smitherman quickly changed his view on Rob Ford and his brother Doug, now premier of Ontario.

In fact, Smitherman, the early front-runner whose dream of becoming mayor was crushed by Rob Ford, was one of the first people to totally underestimate the political appeal of the Fords. He wasn’t the last.

Now, in his new book, Unconventional Candour, which goes on sale Saturday, Smitherman provides a unique close-up look at the rise of the Fords.

The former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister knows the political power of the Fords as well as anyone.

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That’s because, as Smitherman says, he’s the only politician to have lost twice to the Fords, once to Rob in the 2010 mayoral race and then indirectly in the 2018 Toronto municipal election when Doug as premier unexpectedly slashed the city council in half, leaving Smitherman to run a no-hope campaign for a city council seat in a new, combined ward against Kristyn Wong-Tam, an extremely popular incumbent councillor.

Smitherman says at first he didn’t realize Ford’s candidacy, which was masterminded by Doug, “represented a northern version of the Tea Party. He had hit a nerve in that segment of the city that was ‘mad as hell and didn’t want to take it anymore.’ ” He adds he never expected “that Ford, of all people, would effectively harness that energy and sloganize it.”

Ford’s slogan of “Stop the Gravy Train,” when combined with his habit of buying his own paper clips while a city councillor, “gave his message an air of authenticity that his supporters could rally around,” Smitherman says.

“As much as some of us might be inclined to write off his lack of intellectual depth,” he writes, “nobody should doubt the value of authenticity for a politicians’ message. After all, Ford had voted No on virtually every expenditure that came before city council.

At the same time, Smitherman’s team was wrong in believing Ford would say something really stupid and voters would realize he was unfit to be mayor. “The elites were a little slow to realize that a lot of people were just happy that politics was entertaining for once,” he says.

Smitherman admits his own campaign, while flush with policies and cash, was filled with internal problems, which he details. But his biggest failure was that he didn’t go after Rob Ford more on character issues. “My well-meaning admission of past drug use made it very tough for me to fight back against the Fords’ thuggish tactics,” he writes.

Smitherman says he has “no respect” for Doug Ford, calling him “the lowest of the low.” As his brother’s “best friend, work colleague and neighbour, how is it possible that Doug was unaware of his brother’s reckless behaviour. And why didn’t Doug intervene on behalf of both his family and the city.”

In the book, the former top Liberal is highly critical of many of his former colleagues, including Kathleen Wynne. He feels they abandoned him, refusing to back him in 2010 and then refusing to approve of him being a candidate for the 2018 provincial election.

While he takes no pleasure in the Liberals’ disastrous showing in the 2019 provincial race, he does say “I-told-you-so” to his critics.

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“All those people who have scorned me for losing to his (Doug’s) brother in 2010 now understand that the Fords are not so easy to campaign against,” he says.

Today, Smitherman is focusing not on politics, but on his personal life. He has two children, has recently remarried after his first spouse committed suicide in 2013 and has a new job as vice president of corporate relations for a cannabis company.

But politics is deep in Smitherman’s blood. “Politics is what I do,” he once said. Don’t write him off entirely; he may be back.

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