Dalton McGuinty joins Twitter, insomniacs everywhere see a cure

Remember when it was just reporters, celebrities, drunken teens and people pretending to be David Hasselhoff blasting their thoughts out via Twitter? Those innocent days are gone now, with the arrival of Ontario Premier Dalton “Dad” McGuinty to the social networking scene—an occurrence anthropologists have always used as a yardstick for the exact moment something ceases to be cool.

The CBC has the news:

By 4 p.m. Monday, McGuinty’s account had racked up more than 900 followers.

Twitter will allow the premier to “speak directly with Ontarians about what he’s up to, where he’s travelling and talk about the government’s latest initiatives,” his spokeswoman, Jane Almeida, said in an email.

He’d considered joining Twitter for some time after hearing about it from his four children, she said.

“On the good advice of friends and family, I’ve decided to join the Twitterverse,” the premier declared Monday in his maiden tweet.

So far, two of the Preem’s three tweets have to do with school, showing not only that this Twitter feed is going to be a godsend for insomniacs everywhere—McGuinty apparently intends to lower the costs of presciption sleep aids by making them unnecessary—but that the Premier is happy to spend the last week of August solemnly reminding the children of Ontario that summer is almost over.

Thanks, Grinch.

• dalton_mcguinty [Twitter]
• McGuinty joins Twitter [CBC News]
• Ontario Premier to Tweet [Globe and Mail]
• McGuinty joins Twitterverse [Toronto Sun]