Loyola district councillor Jeremy Searle “had a riot” learning he has a Twitter account he didn’t open, which he says would explain the Twitter emails he has been receiving.
It’s undeniable. The @JeremySearle account reads “Political Activist.” The photo could be a selfie, probably dating back at least a couple of years. It shows the councillor standing up against a rocky mountain backdrop. It’s a warm, sunny day around noon. He’s wearing a green sleeveless t-shirt and is looking at the camera.
During an interview on March 24, Searle chuckled when he heard he has Twitter followers. He replied he couldn’t possibly have set it up, and wouldn’t even know how to find it. “Sometimes, I can’t find my own socks, you know,” he said.
He put Marianne, his research assistant, on the phone. “Interesting! Twitter? Facebook? Maybe in 14 years from now, we’ll see. I just taught him how to use the Internet,” she chuckled.
Searle claims he is illiterate in terms of cyberspace technology and social networks.
The account has 11 followers, but it has no tweets and doesn’t follow anyone else.
Searle calls it a “sabotage account.” “Well, there’s nasty stuff floating on the Internet. If you Google me, you’ll find a bunch of lies printed on the Google stuff.”
He also knows he has enemies. One of them is Robin Edgar, a blogger with 1885 Twitter followers who scorns censorship. “Do you believe everything that Jeremy Searle tells you?” he tweeted about Searle’s denial.
Elected as an independent with 23% of the vote on Nov. 3, the Loyola councillor has been dancing to the beat of his own drum, mainly on language and transportation issues.
At the last two Côte-des-Neiges-NDG borough council meetings he found himself in hot water over his comment that the predominance of French at the Montreal airport was the cause of its problems, and over demeaning comments he made about separatists. He issued an official apology this week.
Back in March, Searle also said
he felt “bullied” by Coderre and other councillors.
Then this week, on Apr. 28, Searle engaged in a war of words with Denis Coderre. The Montreal mayor refused to answer his question about the roadwork on the Decarie Expressway tunnel. Instead, he asked Searle to apologize in council for his demeaning remarks about separatists.
Searle protested and asked Coderre to apologize for changing the subject completely. The councillor was nearly expelled, eventually apologizing both to separatists and for violating the code of ethics that forces politicians to address each other with respect, after suggesting Coderre had a problem with his brain.
Then Tuesday, Searle was asked to leave council over inappropriate comments he made recently. Reporters asked him point blank if he was drunk, and if he drinks before council meetings. Searle first denied it, but later admitted to a reporter that he was addressing his drinking problem.
Back to the Twitter account – Searle said he wouldn’t know how to close it.
“In 1875, I fell into a peat bog and I’ve just been revived. And I’m one of the ordinary gentlemen from the Victorian era and I kind of like it that way,” he concluded.
Having worked with Mr. Searle some years ago before knowing he has a problem with alcohol, i was impressed with his hard work and efforts, against the wishes of other politicians, to create a sports centre in NDG, (which former Mayor Applebaum had originally opposed, only to take false credit for in the months before it was built.)
When I taught in a city-run facility in Mr. Searle’s jurisdiction, I appealed to the city to fix a large broken window. I was told it might take from 6mos. to 2 years to have it fixed, leaving my students shivering through a very cold winter. Calling Mr. Searle, he got the window fixed that weekend.
Lately, hearing of an elderly neighbor’s safety concerns, well before he was re-elected in Loyola, Mr. Searle came by to see the problem and paid to have one window barred. He gained no publicity or public recognition for his kindness, just a simple « thanks » from the tenant.
Our first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, known for having gin or whiskey in his water glass, was so drunk he vomited on a colleague on a podium, and engaged in a fist fight in Parliament with a political rival. No one can say Macdonald was a poor leader. So I suggest we look at Mr. Searle with one criterion: whether he serves his constituents well.
My experience has been excellent, in terms of what Mr. Searle has done, and I hope he will prove equal to the task of faithfully executing the will of the people of Loyola. He is to be commended for coming out in public, admitting he has a medical problem, and the least we can do is address this issue in a humane, supportive manner, understanding that he has an illness. Yet, the bottom line here is: does he do his job? If so, his peccadillos, and his illness are his business, and we have no right to demand he leave his position.
Here are some more recent Rob-Fordish funny Searle quotes about his mysterious Twitter account and his understanding of social media.
Many of his constituents, having lived through the Applebaum era, want to give him a second chance, thinking that some of the party politicians’ misdeeds are much worse than Searle’s antics, and being independent and tipsy is better than being corrupt and sanctimonius.
In the CTV guitar interviews Jeremy Searle says that he is the « last person in 50 years to be elected as an independent on city council » (is that true?), which is why the big-money politicians are calling for his scalp. He claims that « the three Cocos, » as he calls Copeman, Coderre and Couillard, are out to get him, which is probably true.
He also takes some nasty shots at Richard Bergeron and Projet Montréal. Searle was voted in with only 23% of the vote - Projet Montréal’s Christian Arsenault (19%) and Équipe Denis Coderre’s Ruth Rosenfield (17%) and others split the vote. Would Searle have been elected if Ranked Choice Voting were in place? Doubt it. But his low-cost campaign was very cost-effective - if nothing else he’s a clever political strategist.