Twitter chat with @vfreedlander and @TonyclementCPC

Posted by Joanna Smith, Ottawa Bureau

This should have happened a lot sooner, but on Wednesday I got around to checking whether Vern Freedlander, the Toronto-based vice-president of production at X2O Media Inc. is on Twitter.

I am interested in learning more about (and talking to) Freedlander because while he was working for the Town of Huntsville, he sent this email to Huntsville Mayor Claude Doughty detailing an alleged conversation with Environment Minister Peter Kent.

It raised some pretty serious questions about the $45.7 million G8 legacy infrastructure funds and how the money was doled out. I wrote a story about that on Monday. Environment Minister Peter Kent told me on Tuesday that the conversation the email describes never took place.

It turns out that yes, Freedlander (@vfreedlander) is on Twitter.

When I found his account, he had 14 followers (after I tweeted about it, he gained some new ones).

One of them was Treasury Board President Tony Clement (@TonyclementCPC). Now, it should be noted that Clement, who is pretty active on Twitter, follows more than 17,000 people. Still, the reason this follow-back is remotely relevant is that when Clement was industry minister, he passed along Freedlander's name to Doughty about the G8-related job he ended up getting.

It turns out that Freedlander has tweeted at Clement a few times. It appears, as far as what I can tell from the easily accessible Tiwtter archives, that the conversation was one-way.

For example, on June 19, Clement joked about something that happened to him on Father's Day and Freedlander wrote back.

On June 18, Clement tweeted a link to a statement by Bruce Springsteen on the death of Clarence Clemons and Freedlander replied the next day calling Clemons the "Minister of Soul".

Clement's timeline only stretches back to June 2011. This means it is not immediately possible for me to know whether Clement responded to any of these earlier tweets from Freedlander.

In any case, here is some more.

February 11:

Clement tweeted:

Soon to be in Huntsville, to tape my monthly Cogeco cable access show. Party on, excellent.

Freedlander replied:

@TonyClement_MP Stan Mikita stopping by?

December 8, 2010:

@vfreedlander Vern Freedlander

@TonyClement_MP: Great to hear you're at LM. LM r clients of ours. X2O Media provides them with in-house communication software. Best, Vern

December 3, 2010:

Clement tweeted:

TonyclementCPC Tony Clement

Saw them live back in the day:awesome! RT @stephenfgordon If only TheDemics cld have lasted longer than they did http://youtu.be/KrPOKNU5Ds4

Freedlander replied:

@vfreedlander Vern Freedlander

@TonyClement_MP Speaking of musical anniversaries 30th Darkness on the Edge of Town great album great tour. Best Bruce ever!

November 27, 2010:

Clement tweeted:

TonyclementCPC Tony Clement

Hello out there! Here's a twitpic of the winter wonderland outside my study window this morning... http://yfrog.com/g945uj

Freedlander replied:

@TonyClement_MP Hi Tony, a wonderful winter scene and I am quite impressed with the wood work around the window! Cheers Vern

And that's all they wrote.

It looks like the tweet above was Freedlander's very first. He joined Twitter on April 19, 2009, but his first tweet (out of 39 so far) was that "wonderful winter scene" message on Nov. 29 of the following year -- to Clement.