Stuart Smith, 82, on June 10, following a two-year struggle with Lewy body dementia. A former president of the McGill University Student Society and debating champion, Smith’s interest in public speaking led him to work in television as co-host of early 1960s CBC Montreal program “Youth Special” with his future wife, Paddy Springate. He later anchored CBC’s “The New Generation.” Smith went on to obtain his degree in medicine from McGill with a major in psychiatry. He entered politics in 1965, seeking the Liberal nomination for the Montreal riding of Mount Royal, but eventually withdrew his nomination in favour of a then unknown Pierre Trudeau. In 1967, Smith left Montreal for Hamilton to become a professor of psychiatry at the new McMaster University Medical School and hosted weekly series “This is Psychiatry” on CHCH-TV. In 1975, he ran as a Liberal in the Ontario provincial election in Hamilton West and became Leader of the Official Opposition, serving alongside Premier William Davis and NDP leader Stephen Lewis. He led the Ontario Liberal Party through the 1978 and ’81 elections before retiring from politics.
