Norm Kelly

Background

Kelly is a trained historian. He studied Canadian political history at the University of Western Ontario and attended Carleton University and Queen's University. Among his most important accomplishments, Kelly undertook a two-year research project for the two best-selling books in the field of Canadian history: The National Dream and The Last Spike, written by Pierre Berton.

Kelly won the Governor General's Award for his work in The National Dream, which was transferred to television by the CBC as a popular, award-winning documentary series of the same name. Kelly was also a history teacher at Upper Canada College, a private school in Toronto.

Early political career

When he first entered politics as an alderman on the borough council of Scarborough, then a suburb of Toronto. Kelly served from 1974 to 1980.

Federal politics

He was elected as a federal Member of Parliament (MP) for Scarborough Centre in the 1980 election, defeating Progressive Conservative (PC) incumbent Diane Stratas. Kelly was twice appointed Parliamentary Secretary: first, to the Ministry of Supply and Services and then to the President of the Treasury Board. In this latter capacity, Kelly was given the responsibility of guiding the Government’s reorganization of its Crown Corporations, Bill C-124, through the House of Commons and its Committees. Kelly was also appointed in 1983 to the Special Committee on Visible Minorities in Canadian Society. This Committee was charged with the responsibility of doing research on the status of visible minorities in Canadian society.

The report, Equality Now, contained 80 ground breaking recommendations aimed at protecting visible minority cultures in Canada while integrating their members into the Canadian mainstream. Kelly lost in the 1984 election, to the PC candidate, Pauline Browes. He attempted to win the Liberal nomination prior to the 1988 election, but quit the race when Odysseus Katsaitis emerged as the front runner. Instead, he decided to again run for mayor, but this time lost to Joyce Trimmer by over 4,000 votes. Prior to the 1993 federal election, he again tried for a Liberal nomination, but this time lost to John Cannis.

Campaign for mayor

In 1985, he ran for mayor of Scarborough, but lost to incumbent Gus Harris. Out of office, he worked as a real estate agent, first for Royal LePage and then for his own company.

Return to council

In the 1994 municipal elections, he was elected to the Metro Toronto council from ward Scarborough/Wexford, defeating Michael Thompson. He emerged as one of the most right-wing members of the council, most noted for his attempt to eliminate all funding for multiculturalism programs during a mock council. Kelly took this stance as he views multicultural programs to further segregate rather than integrate diverse members of the Canadian community. The National Post newspaper once endorsed him, perhaps somewhat in jest, as "a solid anti-communist. Toronto needs his representation as a bulwark against the left." He also became one of the earliest advocates for merging the City of Toronto with five of its suburbs, an idea he pushed as Chair of the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee.

When the "megacity" was created, he was elected to the new Toronto city council. In the 2000 municipal election, redistricting merged Kelly and Tzekas' wards, leading to a bitter election battle between the two, which Kelly easily won. A firm ally of the new city's first mayor, Mel Lastman, his relations with Lastman's successor, David Miller, were less friendly. Kelly was one of five Councillors removed from the TTC board by council in March 2012 because of his support of mayor Rob Ford's subway plan as opposed to council's preferred LRT plan.

In the summer of 2015, Norm Kelly became an international internet sensation when he weighed in on the feud between Canadian rapper Drake and American rapper Meek Mill via Twitter. He has become the figure of several internet memes and has reached fame in the hip-hop community for his involvement in the feud. Through supporting Drake and posting humorous content to his account, Kelly gained a sizable Twitter following of well over 500,000. In September 2015, the nonprofit organization HackerNest presented Kelly with the "Nerd Champion" award for his support of the city's technology community.

Kelly was voted Canada's Most Valuable Tweeter for 2015 in a tournament held by Twitter Canada.

Election results

Unofficial results as of October 26, 2010 03:55 AM