Opinions of the Leaders in the Blogosphere

Blog Opinions- Opinions turn favourable for Rae and Kennedy

All the candidates except Ignatieff received an increase in positive opinion this week, with Kennedy receiving the largest increase from 19.1% last week to 31% this week. He is followed by Rae (up to 27% this week from 21% last week), and Dion (from 15% last week to 23% this week). Bob Rae is receiving less negative opinions at 16% this week down from 25% last week. The other candidates remain relatively stable in terms of negative opinions.

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Blog Opinions- Rae’s Positive Support on the Upswing before Heading to the Convention.

Neutral comments have increased in relation to all candidates other than Rae, and all candidates are receiving less negative coverage in the blogosphere this week. Dion’s negative coverage decreased by10% (from 20% last week to 10% this week). Kennedy’s negative coverage went from 23.6% last week to 11.7% this week. Bob Rae stands out as the candidate receiving the largest increase in both opinionated as well as positive coverage: Rae’s positive comments increased a total of 11% (from 10% last week to 21% this week) while Rae’s neutrality percentage dropped by 10% (from 64% last week to 54% this week).

Opinions of the Top Tier Liberal Leadership Candidates in the Blogosphere (week ending November 24)www.infoscaplab.ca)" title="Negative Opinions of Top Tier Liberal Leadership Candidates in the Blogosphere for Week Ending November 24: Source: Google News/Blogs, Research by Infoscape (www.infoscaplab.ca)" class="image _original" width="618" height="438" />Negative Opinions of Top Tier Liberal Leadership Candidates in the Blogosphere for Week Ending November 24: Source: Google News/Blogs, Research by Infoscape (www.infoscaplab.ca)Partisan Posts in the Blogosphere for Week Ending November 24

Stephane Dion continues to dominate in terms of positive comments (28%), but his negative comments have increased this week (from 9.5% last week to 20% this week). A similar pattern exists for Kennedy (from 17% positive last week to 20% this week, and 19% negative comments last week to 24% this week). Ignatieff and Rae both saw fewer positives and increased negatives (Ignatieff’s negatives went from 29% to 30% and Rae’s negatives from 29% to 26%).

Regarding Partisan Posts in the Blogosphere.

With two weeks left to go in the campaign Dion and Kennedy’s posts have been increasingly more partisan, whereas Ignateiff and Rae’s for the last two weeks have been roughly the same. Posts about Dion in the blogosphere are running at almost 50% partisan, which includes both positive and negative comments.

Dion’s positive coverage went up from 17.9% to 27.6%, as a result of a positive poll stating that he had the most room to grow out of all of the candidates. Most of the top tier candidates saw less negative coverage by about 5%, with the exception of Kennedy. Kennedy’s negative coverage went up by roughly 10%, moving from 8.5% to 18.7% -- which differs from previous weeks when the Blogosphere was fairly neutral concerning Kennedy.

Opinions of the Top Tier Liberal Leadership Candidates in the Blogosphere (week ending November 3)

Blogosphere Negativity Towards Ignatieff Increases Over Quebec Issue

While Bob Rae, Stephane Dion and Gerard Kennedy all saw a decrease in negative coverage, Michael Ignatieff’s negative coverage increased from 28% last week to 35% this week while his positive coverage decreased by 5% (from 11% to 6%). This makes Ignatieff the most negatively viewed candidate on the blogosphere this week, with the majority of bloggers focusing on his Quebec stance. By contrast, this week, Gerard Kennedy is the least controversial candidate: 74.6% of Kennedy’s coverage was neutral, a 20.5% increase from last week.

Week Ending October 27, 2006

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Blogosphere Begins to Show Division Over the Status of Quebec in the Liberal Leadership Race.

Opponents of Quebec’s status as a nation (Rae, Dion) criticized in the blogosphere.

The Blogosphere Warms Significantly Towards Rae

Compared to last week, negative opinions decreased for Ignatieff, Kennedy and Rae. Dion’s negative coverage is stabilized at 12% (from 12.5% last week). While receiving 4% less negative coverage in the Blogosphere from last week, Michael Ignatieff is still the most negatively viewed of all the candidates with 35 % negative opinions. By comparison, Bob Rae received more positive opinions with an increase of 20% from 14% last week to 34% this week. Rae leads in positive opinions this week.

Iggy gets blasted after Controversial Comments about Israeli "Crimes de Guerre" (War Crimes)

Ignatieff, Kennedy and Rae saw opinions turn against them in the blogosphere. Ignatieff saw a 29% increase from 17% last week to 39% negative comments. Rae received 3% more negative coverage from 23% to 26%. Kennedy's negative coverage increased by 8.9% from 18% to 26.1%. Dion is the only candidate who had less negative coverage on the Blogosphere from 16% last week to 12.5% this week. Kennedy continues to see increased negative comments in the blogosphere week after week. Dion's negative comments have decreased to the point that Kennedy surpasses Dion in terms of negative coverage on the blogosphere.

Week Ending October 6, 2006

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Executive Summary

After a week wherein the blogosphere was decidedly negative (in advance of the super weekend) this week’s opinions in the blogosphere, particularly regarding Ignatieff and Dion, did an about turn.

Ignatieff’s positive coverage surged by 25% (from 27% to 52%). At the same time his negative coverage decreased by 11% (from 28% to 17%).

Rae continues to galvanize opinions in the blogosphere, he continues to receive the most negative comments of all candidates, with 23% this week.

Dion’s positive comments surged 10% (from 14% last week to 24% this week).

Week over week, Kennedy’s negative coverage continues to increase posting 18% negative comments this week.

Week Ending September 29, 2006

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Executive Summary

In advance of the leadership delegate selection, the blogosphere turned decidedly negative on all candidates except Gerard Kennedy.

• Negative comments about Bob Rae increased 7% over the week ending September 22nd. One quarter (1/4) of blogs posted negative comments about Rae this past week. Rae and Ignatieff had by far the most opinionated blog posts. Both candidates saw 55% of blogs posting explicitly positive or negative comments.
• Michael Ignatieff’s coverage in the blogosphere (now 28%) was 6% more negative compared to the week ending September 22nd.
• Scott Brison saw the largest jump in negative comments, from 7% to over 30% for the last week.
• Ken Dryden’s negative rating nearly doubled from 11% to 20% for the past week.