Code Politics, Ontario Election 2007: Weekly Research for Week Ending Sept. 7, 2007

Youtube Videos on the Party Leaders in Ontario

John Tory

The five most popular videos this week that focus on John Tory are all decidedly negative.

In four days the Youtube video showing John Tory’s “University of Zero” (Uni. of Ottawa) comment topped 5211 views. The clip has the highest view count ever for any video about John Tory. The next most popular video of all time for Tory was uploaded 8 weeks ago, but has only received 3133 views. The video was uploaded by “PoliticalGuise”.

Last week the 2nd most viewed video on John Tory saw 783 views, another “Politicalguise” video that critiques Tory’s economic and budget policies and proposals.

Dalton McGuinty

Unlike Tory, McGuinty had two positive videos, though 84% of the users who watched McGuinty videos chose to view ones critical of the Premier.

The most viewed video for Premier McGuinty (1213 views, uploaded August 30) continues the PCs use of competent and often humorous pop culture parodies, this time using the TV show The Simpson to critique the Liberal’s record of campaign promises. Unlike the Liberals (who are using the Torytube and Politicalguise accounts), we suspect that the Conservatives or their supporters are switching Youtube accounts from week to week.

Howard Hampton

On September 7 the NDP released their first Youtube campaign video/advertisement. Previous to this release the NDP and Howard Hampton have received significantly fewer viewers than either Tory or McGuinty Videos.

“Ontario Election” Videos

This week we began tracking videos that discuss the “Ontario Election” in general and not a specific candidate. The only significant finding for this research was the provincial Green party’s video calling for their inclusion into the debate. After only two days the video saw a significant audience, drawing 542 views.

YouTube Results

John Tory

Title	Upload Date	Views Last Week	Affiliation	Tone
John Tory shows 'Zero Respect' for the University of Ottawa [1]	September 3, 2007	5211	Liberal	Negative
Tory's Voodoo Economics [2]	August 31, 2007	750	Liberal	Negative
John Tory Platform Costing [3]	July 13, 2007	498	Unknown	Negative
Tory Costing, Putting Things in Perspective [4]	August 30, 2007	321	Liberal	Negative
We won't be fooled again [5]	June 11, 2007	318	Unknown	Negative

Dalton Mcguinty

Title	Upload Date	Views Last Week	Affiliation	Tone
The Simpsons Dalton McGuinty [6]	August 30, 2007	1112	Unknown	Negative
Dalton McGuinty Music Mix [7]	August 28, 2007	444	Conservative	Negative
Dalton McGuinty: Liberals Working [8]	June 17, 2007	174	Unknown	Positive
Dalton McGuinty and his...Hand in my pocket no. 6 [9]	February 1, 2007	148	Lobby Group	Negative
Opening Canada's largest Hindu Temple [10]	July 24, 2007	142	Liberal	Positive

Howard Hampton

Title	Upload Date	Views Last Week	Affiliation	Tone
Pop-Up Video - NDP Style [11]	August 1, 2007	51	Unknown	Negative
United Steelworkers Rally to Save Hamilton Specialty Bar [12]	April 6, 2007	23	Unknown	Positive
Howard Hampton on water in Guelph (4/4) [13]	June 20, 2007	21	NDP	Positive
Howard Hampton speaks about Michael Prue [14]	August 27, 2007	8	NDP	Positive
Howard Hampton on water in Guelph (3/4) [15]	June 20, 2007	5	NDP	Positive

Ontario Election

Title	Upload Date	Views Last Week	Affiliation	Tone
LetFran [16] kIn [16]	September 4, 2007	578	Green Party	Positive
Drew Garvie - Ontario Election 07 - CPC Candidate for Guelph [17]	September 4, 2007	32	Communist Party	Positive
Your Big Decision [18]	September 5, 2007	23	Lobby Group	Positive
Stuart Ryan - Ontario Election 2007 - Candidate for Ottawa [19]	September 4, 2007	19	Communist Party	Positive
Understand the Question - Mechanic [20]	September 5, 2007	18	Lobby Group	Positive

Blogosphere

For the second straight week the blogosphere has been dominated by discussions and debates on John Tory’s proposal for funding religious schools in the province. In addition to the broader issue, bloggers are also questioning the role of creationism in the classroom.

Rank	Issue
1	religious schools
2	family day
3	creationism
4	tory loses
5	faith based schools
6	teach creationism
7	faith based funding
8	private religious schools
9	labour day
10	childcare

Facebook

The Green Party of Ontario saw the largest increase in membership on Facebook groups – 225 last week to 508 this week, an 126% increase. Overall though the MMP referendum continues to dominate Facebook groups, with the issue of Female representation starting to resonate (see the group "I say YES to MMP Because More Women Will Be Elected to Queen's Park"). Opponents are however also starting to organize with a "No MMP" facebook group and website (http://www.nommp.ca).

[21]Click the image to open the chart in a new window