Toronto Coun. Norm Kelly reached a Twitter milestone on Sunday when he gained 100,000 followers, prompting Twitter Canada to send him a shout-out with the hashtag #summerofnorm.

The prolific tweeter hit the milestone after months of sending attention-grabbing tweets, including one that defended home-grown rapper Drake from U.S. performer Meek Mill and another that paid tribute to a dead raccoon.

Kelly, who joined Twitter in July 2010, says his 140-character messages are about the "fun side" of his life and he doesn't use the social networking service as a soap box for his political opinions.

"Twitter – it's like being at a party," the 73-year-old councillor told CTV Toronto. "You can enjoy yourself."

And the Scarborough-Agincourt councillor is arguably the life of the party -- at least in comparison to some of his colleagues at City Hall.

He has more followers than Toronto Mayor John Tory, who has an audience of 68,000. And he has significantly more followers than Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who has a reach of nearly 6,800.

Kelly likely gained the majority of his followers in July after he leapt to the defence of Drake following rapper Meek Mill's accusation that the Toronto rapper doesn't write his own songs. That message was retweeted 136,000 times and he also earned 65,000 followers that month.

According to Kelly, he never expected the Drake-Mill tweet to garner as much traction as it did.

"I never thought anything of that tweet or that it would go any further," he said.

The social networking service has also taken note.

On Sunday, after Kelly broke the 100,000 mark, Twitter Canada dubbed this season the "summer of Norm" in a congratulatory tweet to the Toronto councillor.

Twitter Canada spokesperson Cam Gordon says Kelly's popularity is a result of his dedication to the city and his unique brand of humour.

"He has the right mixture of humour … and he has a clear love for the city," Gordon said. "That comes across in a lot of the things he tweets."

With a report from CTV Toronto's Natalie Johnson