When it comes to Edmonton topics on Twitter, Canadians appeared to be most interested in elections this year.
New data released by Twitter in its 2021 Canadian roundup shows the days the word “Edmonton” appeared most often in tweets correlated directly to election days.
The top time Edmonton was mentioned on Twitter was on Oct. 19 — the day after the city’s municipal election that saw Amarjeet Sohi elected mayor.
While the company didn’t release hard numbers for how many tweets mentioned Edmonton, the head of communications for Twitter Canada said there were “tens of thousands” of mentions of the municipal election that day.
“When we look back at the year, both in Edmonton and honestly right across Canada — there was sports this year, there was COVID — but there was also politics,” Cam Gordon said.
“Obviously in Edmonton, (there was) not just a lot of conversation about (Canada’s) federal election, but also… where you have a new mayor.
“It’s interesting in Edmonton because your outgoing mayor Don Iveson (was) one of Canada’s most followed mayors.
“Your incoming Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, he came in with a built-in pretty large Twitter following himself — having done time federally too,” Gordon said.
Coming in at second and third place for most Edmonton mentions by Canadians was Sept. 20 — the day of the federal election — and on Sept. 21, the day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were relected with a minority government.
Jason Kenney among most mentioned political figures
When it comes to what individual people were mentioned most by Canadians on the social media site, the list — which is all political figures — may come as no surprise.
Donald Trump took the top spot, followed by U.S. President Joe Biden in second place and Justin Trudeau was third most mentioned.
But the fourth and fifth most-mentioned people in Canada were Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.
“When we looked at the year, when we looked at the most mentioned politicians, Jason Kenney in 2021 — and honestly, since he’s become premier — he’s always in the top five of most-mentions of every politician in Canada,” Gordon said.
“We see something similar in Ontario with our Premier Doug Ford — where there’s a lot of supporters of both these premiers, but there’s a lot of people asking questions.”
COVID-19 was the most-mentioned Canadian hashtag of this year, and so many of those conversations got tied into what was happening in the provinces — as different public health measures came and went.
Political leaders have been front of mind for Canadians as the country continues through the COVID-19 pandemic. So it comes as no surprise that #COVID19 was the top hashtag in Canada for 2021, with #cdnpoli coming in at number two.
“Many of those conversations got tied into what was happening in the provinces — as different (restrictive) measures came in,” Gordon said.
Connor McDavid, Oilers, Alphonso Davies get global attention
Sports in Edmonton took some of the top spots for Canadian Twitter accounts getting the most mentions worldwide.
Soccer star and Edmonton native Alphonso Davies was the third most-mentioned Canadian sports figure in 2021, behind Ontario’s Jamal Murray — a point guard for the Denver Nuggets — and B.C.’s Chase Claypool, a wide receiver for the Pittsburg Steelers.
The third place spot for Davies is actually a drop from 2020, when he was the most-mentioned Canadian sports figure.
Edmonton Oilers star player Connor McDavid took the fifth spot in global mentions of all sports figures and was also the number one most-mentioned Canadian hockey player.
“(That’s) not a big surprise — (he’s) obviously one of the best players in the NHL,” Gordon said.
More stats from Canada’s year on Twitter in 2021 is available on its website.
As far as the tweet that was the most-liked by Canadians in 2021?
It doesn’t relate to Edmonton or Alberta — but was a tweet from U.S. President Joe Biden on the day he was elected: