Norm Kelly

Norman Kelly, born August 11, 1941, is a retired Canadian politician whose public life moved between history, Parliament, municipal government, and, unexpectedly, internet fame. For many Toronto residents, he is most closely associated with Scarborough, where he represented Ward 40 Scarborough-Agincourt from 2000 to 2018. He also served as deputy mayor of Toronto from 2013 to 2014, a role that became far more visible than usual during a turbulent period at city hall.

Kelly was trained as a historian before he became a politician. He studied Canadian political history at the University of Western Ontario, earned an M.A. from Carleton University, and began, but did not complete, a Ph.D. at Queen’s University. His early work included a two-year research project for Pierre Berton’s best-selling Canadian history books The National Dream and The Last Spike. Kelly won the Governor General’s Award for his work on The National Dream, which was later adapted by CBC into a popular, award-winning documentary series. He also taught history at Upper Canada College and A. Y. Jackson Secondary School in Toronto.

He first entered politics as an alderman for Ward 3 on the borough council of Scarborough, then a suburb of Toronto, serving from 1974 to 1980. In the 1980 federal election, he was elected Member of Parliament for Scarborough Centre, defeating Progressive Conservative incumbent Diane Stratas. In Ottawa, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to Supply and Services and later to the president of the Treasury Board. In that second role, he was responsible for guiding Bill C-124, the government’s reorganization of its Crown corporations, through the House of Commons and its committees. In 1983, he was appointed to the Special Committee on Visible Minorities in Canadian Society, whose report, Equality Now, included 80 recommendations aimed at protecting visible minority cultures in Canada while integrating their members into the Canadian mainstream.

Kelly lost his federal seat in 1984 and later made several attempts to return to politics through nominations and municipal campaigns. He ran for mayor of Scarborough in 1985 and again in 1988, losing first to Gus Harris and then to Joyce Trimmer. Out of office, he worked as a real estate agent, first for Royal LePage and later through his own company. In 1994, he returned to municipal office as a Metro Toronto councillor for ward 14 Scarborough Wexford. He became known as one of the council’s more right-wing members, opposed funding for multiculturalism programs during a mock council, and argued that such programs could segregate rather than integrate diverse members of the Canadian community. He also supported merging Toronto with five suburbs and pushed the idea as Chair of the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee.

After the new Toronto “megacity” was created, Kelly was elected to city council and continued to serve through several terms. He was an ally of Toronto’s first mayor, Mel Lastman, and later supported Mayor Rob Ford’s subway plan over council’s preferred LRT plan, a stance that led to his removal from the Toronto Transit Commission board in 2012 along with four other councillors. In 2013, after Doug Holyday resigned, Kelly became deputy mayor. Later that year, after controversy around Ford’s admitted substance abuse and further allegations of inappropriate conduct, Toronto City Council voted to remove Ford’s non-statutory mayoral powers and give them to Kelly for the rest of Ford’s term. The arrangement was unprecedented, since the deputy mayor’s role was usually largely ceremonial.

In the summer of 2015, Kelly found a new audience when he commented on Twitter about the feud between Canadian rapper Drake and American rapper Meek Mill. His support for Drake and humorous posts helped turn him into an international internet sensation, a meme figure, and a familiar name in the hip-hop community. He gained a Twitter following of well over 720,000, received HackerNest’s “Nerd Champion” award, and was voted Canada’s Most Valuable Tweeter for 2015 by Twitter Canada. His line, “Not every closed door is locked. Push!” fits the public image that formed around him late in his career: practical, dry, and willing to step into unlikely rooms.