Conservative Bloggers Trash John Tory as Ontario Vote

Nearly half (47%) of recent blog posts* on the Conservative "Blogging Tories" website lambasted Ontario PC leader John Tory. The vast majority of the negative posts made reference to Tory's proposal for funding religious schools. However, perhaps more disturbing for Tory are the numerous references to his liberal politics -- many bloggers complained that Tory would be no better than McGuinty.

Greg Elmer Director of Ryerson University's Infoscape research lab concluded from the study that: "On the eve of Ontario's election, the findings suggest that Tory could be in serious trouble with the conservative wing of his party if current projections and polls indicating a Liberal majority hold true."

The research indicated that even endorsements of Tory were half hearted:

• "He is not as conservative as I would like, but he will be a far more honest premier than dalton mcliar will ever be."
• The "conservative hipster" blog also offered three reasons to vote for John Tory, all of which referred to the attractiveness of the leader's spouse.

The majority of negative opinions of Tory from Conservative bloggers, however, typically read much like this post:

• "Sorry guys. He's just as liberal as McGuinty and I don't support extending the funding of religious schools to all religions. I think that is the wrong path to go down and will lead to more ghetoization of immigrant communities."

For more information on the Code Politics Project please contact Greg Elmer, Director, Infoscape Research Lab, Ryerson University, 416-802-2182.

* The sample included the most recent 40 posts discussing "John Tory" from "Blogging Torries" affiliated bloggers. See www.bloggingtories.ca/