Norm Kelly

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Norman "Norm" Kelly (born August 11, 1941) is a city councillor in Toronto, Canada for Ward 40 Scarborough Agincourt. He represents one of the two Scarborough—Agincourt wards.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Kelly was a history teacher at Upper Canada College, a private school in Toronto, 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. 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 himself defeated in the 1984 election, losing to PC candidate Pauline Browes. In 1985, he ran to be 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.

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.

In the 1994 municipal elections, he was elected to the Metro Toronto council from the ward of 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. 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. He was at the centre of a highly publicized incident when fellow councillor Mike Tzekas reportedly told Kelly that he would "kick your fucking ass right now, I'll drop you in front of your wife."[1] Tzekas claimed that his outburst was in response to an anti-Greek slur from Kelly. In the 2000 Toronto 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, have been less friendly.