Canadian Football League wide receiver Brad Smith recently experienced what is probably every man’s dream (or maybe nightmare) — dating 25 women all at the same time. After 16 seasons, the American reality television dating series The Bachelor made its way north of the 49th, and the Torontonian was the first plucky Canuck to jump at the chance to expose his most private and base emotions to the entire nation in exchange for the chance to find lasting love on the small screen.
If it’s to closely follow its American predecessor, the new series, which premieres this fall, will without a doubt include extravagant dates in exotic locations, plenty of helicopter rides, steamy hot tub scenes and loads of girl drama — plus, of course, all the Canadianisms you could hope for.
It’s a far cry from small-town life in Hudson,Que., where Smith grew up. He wasn’t always set on being a professional football player — or a reality TV star.
True to his Canadian roots, hockey was inevitably his sport of choice as a kid. But he quickly learned it wasn’t exactly his forte and joined the high school football team in his sophomore year.
Football was familiar to Smith, the son of former CFL commissioner and current Canadian senator Larry Smith.
Soon after playing for the Golden Gaels at Queen’s University, Smith made Toronto his home base when he joined the Argonauts. Currently, the free agent is signed with the Edmonton Eskimos but still calls Toronto home.
Besides football, Smith has a love for cooking, watching hockey and throwing back a few Frulis at the Bier Markt — one of his favourite T.O. hangouts. So why is this incredibly charismatic, athletic, good-looking guy still single? One word: football.
The bachelor explains that he’s been traded, cut, repositioned and moved to multiple different cities because of his career — and it was difficult to find a woman who would put up with that lack of stability.
“No one wants to follow you when you don’t have your own roots set,” Smith says. “I was never in the position to get a solid foundation in a relationship.”
“You’re going to hear the word ‘eh’ every three seconds.”
So when opportunity came knocking, Smith jumped at the chance to try and find love on a Canadian reality TV series. And though production on the show has already wrapped up, Smith is sworn to secrecy regarding the identity of his chosen lady love. For now, all we know is that he is planning to settle back down in Toronto and back to regular life — without cameras following his every move. He explains that whereas his mom was extremely excited for him to embark on this experience, his dad was worried about how the show would affect not just his son’s privacy, but that of their entire family:
“My dad’s always been in the public eye, and now viewers not only get to see me but my family interactions and how we get along,” Smith says. “You’re not just bringing two or three girls home, you’re bringing Canada into your family situation.”
Bringing contestants home to meet the family is a regular ritual in every Bachelor series, one that is meant to help the bachelor decide which woman will be his best fit — and inevitably one that shines a spotlight on the family’s quirks.
Smith has always looked up to his parents, who are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary this year. He says that what he respects most about their bond is that it’s honest and candid — characteristics that would presumably be hard to come by in the world of reality TV dating.
Smith says watching the American versions of the show (The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Bachelor Pad) didn’t necessarily impart to him that it would be an easy ride.
“[When you watch,] you judge the cast of the show and [are] critical of them, just like people are going to be critical of me and my decisions and how I act,” Smith says.
Then there’s trying to interpret the motives of 25 women. For Smith, trying to figure out whether they were being truly genuine in every moment was an impossible feat. As Bachelor fans are aware, a lot of people come on the show for different reasons — money and fame often trump love. In his situation, he says he had to simply put blind faith in the fact that these women were there for the right reasons.
When it comes to expectations for finding love, he says, “I said to the girls, ‘I’m going to make a lot of mistakes, but hopefully in the end, I’ll make the one right choice that is good for me. I knew that, if I had put an end goal on this experience, it [would] not turn out the same as if I were to take it day by day.”
As for a particular strategy, Smith seems to have won the ladies over with his easy-going nature — and of course, his looks don’t hurt either.
“I’m pretty much a joker, and although I can be serious, I wanted the girls to see my sense of humour and not come off like the guys on the American version — who are pretty much stiffs.”
That’s not the only way the show will be different from the American version, Smith says.
“You’re going to get a lot more honest situations, rather than stuff that looks forced and contrived, like what we see in the States version.”
So, maybe not so many helicopter rides after all?
And, perhaps most notably, “You’re going to hear the word ‘eh’ every three seconds,” he adds.
When speaking about how it all worked out in the end, Smith seems pretty happy — although he suggests we may still see our fair share of drama on the Canadian version of the series.
“Just on the spectrum of what’s happened in the last two months of my life, I wouldn’t change this experience for anything. It’s one of the biggest up-and-down rides you can take,” he says. “But in the same respect, it’s totally something that I’m going to look back on in 10 years and still not believe that I was a part of.”
The airing of the first rose ceremony is quickly approaching, so grab your girlfriends, a bottle of red and get ready to witness all the ups and downs on Brad Smith’s adventure to find his soul mate.
The Bachelor Canada premieres Wednesday, Oct. 3 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Citytv.
