Since watching party leaders bicker is like a schoolyard shouting match, let’s apply some schoolyard measurements to see who’s really the “coolest.”
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Might as well start with Facebook – since that’s the way so many people start their day anyway:
Layton: 21,435 friends. He’s kicking butt here. Did you know his interests include “politics”? Well, Star Wars as a favourite movie should get him some votes.
Harper: 16,621 friends – the kind he’ll possibly shake hands with (but not hug).
Dion: 13,767 friends. Now try finding him. Because of an accent in his profile name, if you just search “Stephane Dion” you get this Dion. Oh, and a bunch of muscular dudes who could help with fisticuffs, but not with delicate geopolitics.
May: 4,514 friends. A pretty good showing. It’s also nice to see her actual profile come up first. Yay! We have real friends in common.
Duceppe: 1,906 friends. Has anyone noticed that Duceppe is actually Martin Short from Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause?
Now Twitter:
Layton: 1169 followers 132 updates. Some staffer should get a prize for using Twitter effectively.
Harper: 993 followers 48 updates. Harps had that snooty third person things going early on e.g.: “PM speaks to Canadians about the choice facing Canadians,” but later realised his aides should be writing from his heart, or John Howard’s.
Dion: 835 following 65 updates. We all know Dion isn’t going to sit around typing these overly exclaimed tweets, so kudos to them for just calling it “Liberal Tour.”
May: 568 followers 103 updates. Many posts are responses to other people questions, but it does feels like the most personal leader tweet collection.
Duceppe: 230 followers 76 updates. It has English and French!
Look at that, the same pattern. So Layton is winning the online campaign at Facebook and Twitter. If there was more time we could look at lesser sites. Like who’s got the most friends on Myspace, WAYN, Bebo and Friendster? Let’s try that next week.
