VANCOUVER — You know you’ve hit the big time when a fake Twitter account in your name appears online.

Andre Proulx is certainly the only CFL referee who has ever received such an honour. He is without a doubt the most famous — or perhaps infamous — referee in the CFL, and he will be calling his third Grey Cup on Sunday at BC Place because he graded out as the league’s top official this season.

The @fakeandreproulx account appears to have vanished into the Internet ether, but when it was up and running his fellow CFL officials were more than happy to provide updates. That’s because no one busts Proulx’s chops more than his fellow officials.

Proulx, as every CFL fan knows, can have a little trouble with the English language, which is understandable considering he was born and raised in Drummondville, Que., and still lives there today. One recent stumble occurred in the West semifinal at Commonwealth Stadium, where he tried to say “vicinity” during a penalty call, but it eventually came out “vinicity.”

He probably heard about that one from his colleagues in stripes, too.

“They say, ‘Do you know what you said last week?’ I said what? Because I don’t check it. Here’s what you said ...”

Proulx can laugh at that, but he knows there is vitriol toward him. Like most officials, he does his best to ignore it.

“I’m not going on, especially the Internet, to look at what people are thinking of me,” Proulx said. “And luckily for me I’m French, and my family doesn’t look at that. So it makes my life easier. I know there’s some people that don’t like me, but that’s life.

“They don’t know me, and probably they don’t like me because of one call that I didn’t even make, but that’s life. And that’s being the head referee.”

In today’s world of being able to say very mean things behind a cloak of online anonymity, much of the ammunition fired at Proulx revolves around his trouble speaking — like their French would be any better in front of 30,000 people and hundreds of thousands more on television.

“I would love to be able to speak just like you without an accent, but unfortunately I’m a French-speaking boy and it’s there,” said Proulx who, along with his wife Line, has a daughter, Stephanie, in university, and a son, Philippe, in Grade 12. “There’s nothing I can do. I’m doing my best, and I’d rather have people judge me on what I’m doing on the field rather than what I’m saying, because I’m a darn good official. I could tell you that.

“I’ve been around for 17 years. I’m always doing the best I can do every game for the players and for the fans, because we’re all in together. If one fails, the whole league fails. I’m trying to do my best week in and week out.”

Proulx, who runs his own plumbing, heating and cooling company in Drummondville, played football as a youngster and began officiating when he was 14. He played past high school, but gave it up in his early 20s to focus on officiating.

“I was a better ref than a player, so it was kind of an easy decision to go from playing to reffing,” he said. “I was doing both at the same time. From one week I was playing with my friends and the following week I was reffing them.”

The 50-year-old changed his lifestyle two years ago when he suffered a mild heart attack while doing a game in Edmonton. He gave up smoking immediately and started eating better.

“That was an easy decision,” Proulx said. “I changed my diet. My wife takes care of that, and I run seven clicks every day. I’m a totally different guy. I’ve never felt better.”

He’s also at the top of his game when it comes to calling football games, whether you agree or not.

MORE PENALTIES THIS YEAR? YUP

Referees threw flags like it was going out of style this season, but Andre Proulx’s crew was a little more discretionary than others.

Regardless, every CFL official gets painted with the same brush, and there was a lot of fan consternation about the men in stripes — way more than usual — this season. When the CFL announced Wednesday that Proulx would call Sunday’s game, the backlash on Twitter was fierce and not unexpected.

Proulx said the level of officiating falls not only on the men wearing black and white. It’s up to everyone to get on the same page. Regardless, he said, there were going to be more penalties this season because of the league’s mandate.

“It’s the players, it’s the coaches, it’s the officials, it’s the league,” Proulx said. “We were given something at the beginning of the season, explaining what to expect in certain situations. Players were told, coaches were told, and we gotta live with that. If we’re not calling it, we’re not doing our job. So yes, the average is higher than in the past, but the standard has been changed.”

The level of officiating can always improve in any league, but the big question is how does that happen? More money? More training? Better glasses?

“We could get a bit more training, but it won’t change anything,” Proulx said. “What we need to do is work more with the players. Let them know what we’re going to call. If we have a good understanding with the players and the coaches, that will reduce the number of fouls.”​

kirk.penton@sunmedia.ca

twitter.com/PentonKirk​