Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

The YouTube vote

by Aaron Wherry on Friday, March 11, 2011 2:55pm - 28 Comments

Green party attack on attack ads, released five days ago: 44,175 views.
Conservative party attack on Michael Ignatieff, released two months ago: 19,768 views.

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  • danby

    Green Party ad views: 44,175
    Conservative ad views: 19,768
    The look on my face as the Conservative majority dream dwindles: priceless

    • Crit_Reasoning

      Yes, if these Youtube view counts tell us anything, it's that the Conservative majority dream is all but dead. Youtube's influence on Canadian politics can't possibly be understated. ;-)

    • avr

      Everyone knows that only Facebook group membership numbers are the real metric for political success.

      My bold prediction: the Greens yet again fail to elect a single MP. It will come as a surprise to every single one of their supporters, and much of the media (but I repeat myself), and no one else.

      • Crit_Reasoning

        My bold prediction: the Greens yet again fail to elect a single MP

        Way to go out on a limb, avr.

        • avr

          I know, right?

      • sourstud

        I think a much better metric for Green party success would be the inverse of the number of CPC MPs they get elected by splitting the vote on the left.

      • LdKitchenersOwn

        :-)

        Still, one does have to admit that given the vagaries of our system, the inability of a party to elect an MP is not definitively indicative of a lack of popular support for said party in the country.

        Just sayin', one does have to have some sympathy for that 10-15% of our population who must feel that they'll never live long enough to see a member of their preferred party actually elected to the House of Commons.

    • mary davis

      Who wants to see more of those con guys?! God knows we see them enough on t.v. as it is!

  • Realistic

    Maybe if the conservatives quit airing their ads on television, more people would go to you-tube and watch them.

    • bergkamp

      I was thinking along same lines. Other than Green Party, and Wherry, who cares how many progressives watched the ad on youtube.

      Green Party tv ad views: 0
      Conservative tv ad views: Millions

      • tobyornotoby

        Percentage who found the Conservative tv ads annoying while they were watching sports: 100

      • M_A_D_world

        You-tube is chosen viewing as opposed to incidental viewing of television.

    • Reverend_Blair

      They should definitely try that.

    • mary davis

      nah

  • Crit_Reasoning

    I have to hand it to the Green Party. Their "meta" attack ad was well done.

  • LdKitchenersOwn

    I would ask for two more numbers though.

    The percentage of the 19,768 who are likely to vote in the next election, and the percentage of the 44,175 who are likely to vote.

    I don't disagree with Danby's apparent suggestion that if the under 30 crowd started really voting at the level that the over 60 crowd does the Tories might have a big problem, but haven't we been waiting since, I don't know, CONFEDERATION for that to happen?

    • MostlyCivil

      I think you may be looking at these ads through the wrong prism.

      The Conservative ads don't seem to be trying to get out the vote. Voter numbers actually seem to decrease the more negative the ads become. The partisan, hardcore audience always votes, but the mushy middle seems to throw up their hands and say "why bother, I don't like any of them." Advantage incumbents.

      The Greens? While the party has said their only goal is to elect May, the reality is that pushing that mushy middle to vote ups their vote subsidy. More money means more fundraising power. And they're not aiming for the under 30's. They're aiming at the disaffected 35 to 50 year-olds who have parked their vote at home because there's nobody they like. This is party building, and for 10 grand, they've got their money's worth.

  • Loraine Lamontagne

    Another Conservative attack ad – like eating shepherd's pie ten days in a row.

    • CAPS

      Except I love Shepherd's PIe/Pâté chinois (Haché Parmentier in France).

  • http://twitter.com/Anders_Bell @Anders_Bell

    It's official. The piano playing cats and singing huskies are a shoe-in for next majority government!

  • Mike514

    For what it's worth, 45 people disliked the Green party ad on Youtube…

    • LdKitchenersOwn

      For what it's worth, rating of the Tory video was TURNED OFF. LOL

    • LdKitchenersOwn

      It should perhaps also be pointed out that 561 people liked the Green Party video.

  • sourstud

    What, no mention of the Liberals last YouTube video?

    5 MONTHS ago – 48,696 views
    http://www.youtube.com/user/liberalvideo#p/u/2/-X…

    So by these highly accurate metrics, the Green Party is likely to win the next election, with the CPC as Opposition. Riiiiiiggghhtttt.

  • http://tiny.cc/CRUSH Nadine Lumley

    Actual Steve Harper quotes re killing our national health care system
    2 min Harper Cartoon http://tiny.cc/PM_killing_health_care

    ♥

  • Dave

    This can only mean one thing: the Greens, with double the YouTube views of the Tories’ video, must be at 75% in the polls.

  • The Dreamer
  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Ottawa_Centrist Ottawa_Centrist

    Pleasantly surprising news for a Friday afternoon!

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