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George Smitherman's husband found dead

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Toronto

An emotional Kathleen Wynne choked back tears Monday as she remembered former cabinet colleague George Smitherman’s husband, who died Sunday.

Christopher Peloso, 40, was reported missing Sunday and found deal shortly after.

“Jane (the premier’s partner, Jane Routhwaite) and I knew Christopher as just a kind, gentle, loving man. He will be hugely missed,” Wynne told reporters.

The Premier said she e-mailed Smitherman Sunday night when news broke that Peloso, a chocolate company manager, was missing.

At that time, Smitherman tweeted, “Freedom from depression has been elusive for Christopher and once again he is missing and we fear for his safety.”

In a statement Monday, Smitherman said Peloso, “Will always be remembered for his dedication to others.”

It was the second time Peloso had gone missing. After a frantic search in September, he was found by a police tracker dog, curled in ball, near a rail line in the Dupont St.-Lansdowne Ave. area.

“It’s a very, very sad day for George and his family and for Christopher Peloso’s family,” Wynne told reporters.

Peloso had a daughter from a previous marriage to a woman and he and Smitherman adopted two children.

The couple wed in a lakeside ceremony in Elliot Lake in 2007. Peloso is from the Sudbury area.

Smitherman had proposed to Peloso on Christmas Day of the previous year.

“This is my greatest foray into romance,” he told reporters at the time, joking that he planned to wear a “thong,” for the nuptials.

The province’s first openly-gay cabinet minister, Smitherman was a long-serving health minister in Dalton McGuinty’s cabinet, before being shuffled into the energy and infrastructure role, where he was responsible for the Green Energy Act.

He quit provincial politics to run unsuccessfully for the Toronto mayoralty in 2010.

After Peloso’s body was found, Smitherman tweeted: “We will celebrate his life and we will find comfort somehow in knowing that he has found peace from the depression that has wreaked havoc on his mind.”

As news of Peloso’s death spread, tributes continued to pour in.

“Heart goes out to George Smitherman on the loss of his husband, Chris, a sweet and loving man. Sometimes the world breaks your heart,” said former MP Bob Rae, who shared Smitherman’s Toronto Centre riding.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who defeated Smitherman in the 2010 election, tweeted: “It is with great sadness that I have learned of the passing of Mr. Christopher Peloso, husband to Mr. George Smitherman, and loving father.”

 

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