As Nova Scotia voters are set to head to the polls tomorrow, Twitter Canada has been tracking key topics in the election.
Cameron Gordon, head of communications at Twitter Canada, said the social media platform continues to be a platform for people to connect with politics and breaking news.
“In terms of politics, right off the start, pretty much every politician across the country is on Twitter so you know that you’re getting direct content, direct messages and direct viewpoints from politicians, whether they’re in office or running for office, on Twitter,” he said.
READ MORE: Complete Nova Scotia election coverage
Gordon said when it comes social media, Twitter has become a “robust” platform for sharing media including video.
Top topics of discussion
Over the month of May, Twitter Canada has also tracked the top topics of discussion on the platform using the hashtag #nsVotes, Gordon said. From that they released the top three on Wednesday:
- Seniors care and nursing homes
- The economy and budgets
- Education and tuition
In addition to these three topics, Gordon said there is often a statement or single issue that “pops” on Twitter. Data showed discussions surrounding labour and unions started building after the writ was dropped on April 30 with three of the five most-used secondary hashtags in the election were #canlab, #fairfuture and #1u.
“So you’re seeing all these opinion leaders and they’re not necessarily the people running for office, but the people who do have big influence on votes, they’re also campaigning for their candidates they want to get in too,” Gordon said.
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Leaders on Twitter
Numbers also show how leaders are interacting with the public.
Since he called the election, data shows Liberal leader Stephen McNeil has been mentioned 1.4 time more than NDP leader Gary Burrill and 1.7 times more than PC leader Jamie Baillie.
However, the first leaders debate two weeks ago saw the highest volume of tweets using the hashtag #nsVotes and during that debate, Burrill was mentioned in 40 per cent of all tweets that mentioned a party leader. McNeil was mentioned in 37 per cent of tweets, while Baillie was mentioned in 23 per cent.
But Gordon said those numbers are not necessarily indicative of where voters are swaying.
“With Twitter there are quality discussions in terms of the content being put out, but then there’s also quantity,” he said. “Some candidates and some political parties tend to tweet more than others … The reality is, there’s so much political conversation going on on Twitter.”
READ MORE: Nova Scotia election: Party leaders head to Halifax City Hall
Tweets from… Ontario?
One extra piece of data found by Twitter was the location of election-related tweets. While 88 per cent of the tweets came from Nova Scotians, there were eight per cent of tweets coming from Ontario.
Gordon said that number may come from stakeholders who, though they don’t live in Nova Scotia still have a stake in the election.
“Even though provincial elections are obviously very regional by nature, there’s an audience on Twitter that’s still paying attention to it,” he said.
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