David Miller's political opponents might wish to take extra care if they see him fiddling with his BlackBerry during council sessions.
For the past month, the mayor has been scoring points with the city's community of Twitter users - denizens of the trendy online service that encourages people to post minutely short notes about what they're thinking and doing - by providing a mayor's-eye-view of the city.
And he's not above enjoying the occasional partisan poke. After he posted a cellphone photo of the council chambers, 24-year-old Alex Stoutley posted a note.
"Could we get a snapshot from your seat next time Rob Ford is criticizing you?"
So it was that, during a city council session on Tuesday, a picture of Rob Ford - the famously penny-pinching city councillor, and vocal critic of the mayor - appeared on David Miller's Twitter page.
The councillor appeared to be in full bluster. The mayor had taken the photo with his BlackBerry and the fuzziness of the image gave it the aspect of a spy shot. "As requested," wrote the mayor. "Unfortunately, he will not stand still."
His online audience of about 1,600 lapped it up. The photo was widely passed around the Twitter community, which seemed energized to find a politician that shared its sense of whimsy. "It was pretty cool to have a mayor who would actively do that," noted Mr. Stoutley, after the fact.
Plenty of Canadian politicians have signed up for Twitter accounts. On city council alone, councillors Adam Giambrone, Joe Mihevc and Denzil Minnan-Wong have taken to using the service.
"It's quite remarkable. Every day more people are following me, many of whom I don't know," says Mr. Minnan-Wong, who still calls himself "a virgin Twitter user."
Mr. Ford, for his part, says he wasn't aware of the mayor's photo, or of Twitter, and asked who was paying for it. (The service is free.)
Others, like Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Toronto-bred opponents, Michael Ignatieff and Jack Layton, use Twitter to issue sporadic, largely ignored, press releases or matter-of-fact status reports, often ghost-written by staffers.
American politicians have met with more success: During President Obama's speech before Congress this week, several senators and congressmen were posting live updates from the floor, leading others to ask if doing so was impolite.
Even John McCain, who was never known as an online whiz kid, is reported to be hacking out tweets on his BlackBerry.
But few politicians have made Twitter a part of their everyday lives. In this respect, the Toronto mayor is an exception. Instead of anodyne press releases, Mr. Miller's readers have come to expect a mix of dryly funny day-in-the-life anecdotes, earnest Toronto boosterism, thoroughly amateur pictures taken from around the city, political grandstanding, the odd thought about hockey (professional and pee-wee) - and lots about his running.
In this respect, Mr. Miller has taken a page from Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, who has built a strong following.
"There's an art to Twitter," says Jen Evans, the founder of Sequentia Environics, a Toronto consultancy that specializes in community building. "It's partly entertainment, partly information, partly insight, partly personal commentary.
"If you get that balance right, which Mayor Miller has done - and I don't think any other Canadian politicians have nailed it so far - you can have magic."
The mayor says his motives are straightforward: He's "hooked."
"This is an outlet to have fun," says Mr. Miller. "I take it in that spirit."
Mr. Miller says his Twitter habit gives Torontonians a glimpse of what it's like to be mayor. On Thursday, at a school to launch a "Cricket in the snow" sports event, Mr. Miller snapped his perspective of the press conference: rows of television cameras with cross-legged children parked beneath them on the gymnasium floor.
One of his Twitter followers let out a little grumble in response. "Two things missing from that picture: Cricket; Snow."
"Good point," answered the mayor. "Was at the press conference before; I get a kick out of photographing them. Next time - the real stuff."
Special to The Globe and Mail