#SUMMEROFNORM
How a Toronto councillor became rapper Drake’s best friend — and a Twitter god,
Kelly’s rapid ascendancy in the social media realm has inspired numerous articles, with some suggesting that he may not actually be the face behind the account.
In December 2014, CBC compiled a list of his best tweets in a piece entitled “The growing legend of Norm Kelly’s Twitter account.”
And just last week, Blog TO’s Aaron Ries put together a similar list, writing “Norm’s no holds barred Twitter strategy is something of a novelty in mainstream politics and is often met with confused looks and a ‘can it really be him tweeting that?’ head scratch.”
In a piece called “A Caterpillar Into a Sick-Ass Butterfly: The Bizarre Twitter Story of Norm Kelly,” Vice writer Jordan Foisy both admired and questioned the councillor’s ability to produce such gems.
“It’s the tone and style of his tweets that raises my eyebrow,” Foisy wrote. “This is a man who has become fluent in the medium.”
Whether he writes his own tweets or not — he said he does, but admits to stealing “shamelessly from everybody,” setting the record straight in an interview on a different Vice website — Kelly has become known for undeniably clever, timely remarks, most of which are retweeted and favourited hundreds, if not thousands of times.
It’s a surprising development for a former history teacher at Upper Canada College, who is serving his seventh term since 1994 on Toronto city council.
Despite many years of public service, Kelly was long known mainly for his contentious remarks on climate change while he was chair of the parks and environment committee.
After he was propelled into the role of de facto mayor in 2013 in the midst of the Rob Ford crack scandal, he was credited with bringing some civility back to city council.
In 1980, he ran as a Liberal in Scar- borough Centre and became an MP in Pierre Trudeau’s government. He lost his seat when Brian Mulroney led the Progressive Conservatives to a landslide victory in 1984.
Now back in his seat as councillor for Ward 40, Scarborough-Agincourt, Kelly is making a name for himself as a Twitter savant with an uncanny ability to connect with youth — a demographic other politicians consistently struggle to appeal to.