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Norm Kelly might be Toronto’s best-liked city councillor at the moment. And that’s really quite odd, because by the standards of Toronto’s excitable left-wing politics-watchers, he ought to be a villain. In his two decades on Metro and then City Council, the Scarborough councillor has suggested shutting down the streetcar system; defended budget cuts for school playground equipment and to multicultural groups; dismissed calls for a “cosmetic” pesticide ban (correctly) for lack of evidence, boasting his lawn was “99.9 per cent grass”; staunchly supported police chief Julian Fantino against his progressive critics; and suggested climate change, if real — if — might benefit Toronto’s tree canopy. That was all before he hitched his wagon to the Rob Ford agenda, including as his second deputy mayor.

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How is this man even somewhat popular? His performance as interim mayor once Ford finally went away certainly took a lot of the edges off his reputation — and it wasn’t just the low bar he had to clear. In public, Kelly turned an enthusiastic, friendly, competent face to the city and beyond, and he reportedly did likewise in his dealings with fellow councillors. But it’s on Twitter, for whatever that’s worth, that he has really remade his reputation.