TORONTO - The four members of the convivial Manotick, Ont., rock band Hollerado have pulled off plenty of admirably insane stunts in the past.

They released their debut, "Record in a Bag," for free and -- yes -- in a bag. They played a "residency tour" that involved driving more than 11,000 kilometres in the dead of winter to play the same seven cities each week for a month. And, for some reason, they even launched their own line of hot sauce.

But when frontman Menno Versteeg and his bandmates began musing on a new idea -- which would see the group tour Canada and try to meet the mayor of each city along the way -- it seemed ludicrous, even for band that has made a calling card out of completely impractical ideas.

"Right away, everyone was like: 'You guys have had some ridiculous ideas, but fat chance (that) any mayors are going to meet with you,"' Versteeg said in a telephone interview this week from Vancouver.

"Then it dawned on me ... isn't the fact that everyone, all of my peers, people our age, think it's impossible to meet a mayor, isn't that a reason itself for why we want to meet them?

"You should be able to talk to your municipal politicians about issues that concern you."

And thus Hollerado created its latest improbably successful plan.

Since launching the "meet the mayor" tour last week in Sudbury, Ont., the band has met with mayors in Vancouver, Regina, Lethbridge, Alta., Thunder Bay, Ont., and Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. They have plenty more meetings scheduled, including sessions in Edmonton, Calgary, Hamilton and Victoria. There's even been some interest, Versteeg says, from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The idea was born originally because Versteeg and co. had recently moved to Toronto. They were "absolutely loving it" in the Ontario capital, but found themselves frustrated by the city's recently elected mayor, Rob Ford.

Versteeg was frustrated by the mayor's stance on a number of issues -- including the elimination of dedicated bike lanes, reduced funding for the public-library system and Ford's absence at the city's Pride events -- and wanted answers.

"I was complaining, like, 'I'd love to sit down and talk with this guy,"' he recalled. "I don't want to yell at you. I want you to explain to me why you're doing these things. Maybe you have a good answer."

At first, Versteeg agreed with his friends that the concept was simply too ridiculous to work in practice. Still, he and his bandmates took to Twitter to float the idea of meeting municipal leaders, mainly intending the message in jest. They were shocked by the swift response.

Within hours, Versteeg said, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi expressed interest in meeting. Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco followed soon afterward, and the band began to realize the idea was viable.

The group asks the same five questions of every mayor, including a light-hearted query comparing fictional cartoon mayors Quimby and West (from "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy" respectively) and a question about local music scenes.

But Versteeg says they've also polled fans via Twitter for more pressing queries, and they've tried to probe the politicians on topics including the biggest challenges facing their cities or the state of their public transit systems.

"I'm not Dan Rather. I'm no Ed Bradley. That's not who we're trying to be," Versteeg said. "We're not trying to embarrass them or make them look silly or find some scandal, that's not our agenda at all."

"These mayors have never heard of our band -- we're not Bono.... So the point (is) it doesn't matter that we're a band. We could be the guy who works at the bank, who works at the shoe store ... and that's the main point we want to prove, that these people are accessible."

Versteeg says the experience has been "amazing" so far.

Lethbridge Mayor Rajko Dodic hopped onstage with the band to play guitar, the first time he'd wielded the proverbial axe in front of an audience in roughly 30 years. Fiacco helped Hollerado's tourmates, Young Rival, locate someone to fix up their van after a parking-lot mishap. Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs was one of Versteeg's favourites, both for his candid discussion of his city's struggles as well as his willingness to attend the entirety of the band's late-night concert, even though he had to get up at 6 a.m. the following morning.

The only disappointment thus far? Well, Versteeg says the band hasn't elicited any response from Ford, whose policies provided the impetus for the entire tour.

"We would absolutely love to meet with Mayor Ford -- and not as a confrontation," Versteeg said.

"We're not like an anarchist band. We're not throwing rocks at the G20. We're a bunch of (citizens) of his city who want to get a straight answer as to why these things that affect us are happening."

But Versteeg, ever the pragmatist, does have a backup solution in mind.

"If he doesn't want to meet with us, we'd love to see if Margaret Atwood will meet with us on behalf of Toronto instead," he said, coyly referring to a standoff over the closure of public libraries between Atwood and Ford's councillor brother, Doug Ford, who famously said he wouldn't recognize the celebrated author if she walked past him.

"That would be pretty cool."