Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Face Off

One of the good things about blogs, is that you don't always have to be serious and can descend into what I like to call "Jane Taber journalism" every now and then when the mood strikes. Today is one of those days.

I'm sure a lot of you are already aware of the growing popularity of everyone's favourite stalking aid, facebook. A growing trend seems to be for politicians (or, more appropriately, 16 year old interns pretending to be their bosses) creating profiles on facebook. Because of this, people can become "friends" with the politicians, send them notes, etc.

So, purely because I'm bored, I was curious to see which politicians have the most friends. Given that Stephen Harper and Stephane Dion both strike me as the anti-social type, it must be a surprise to both of them to see just how popular they really are:

Stephen Harper: 511 friends
Stephane Dion: 1086 friends

So, while he may not be polling as well, when it comes to virtual friends who have never met him, Stephane is way more popular than Steve. Ohh...and least surprising of all:

Jack Layton: 8 friends

Geez Jack - I know getting results for people takes a lot of time, but save a bit for your friends too.

Other notables:

Kevin Taft: 170 friends
Ed Stelmach: No profiles, but 29 people in the "Ed Stelmach fan club"
Michael Ignatieff: 1583 friends (obviously not enough of them were delegates)
Peter MacKay: No profile, but 7 members in the Peter MacKay fan club.
Dalton McGuinty: 17 members in the "Dalton McGuinty is handsome" club.
Hillary Clinton: No profile but over 500 groups devoted to her, including "Don't let a woman become President...especially Hillary Clinton" and "Don't support Hillary Clinton, support Chris Dodd".

Other fun groups:

"The Paul Wells Appreciation Society" [39 members]
"The Andrew Coyne Fan Club" [119 members]
"I miss making fun of Jean Chretien" [78 members]
Two groups called "Stephen Harper eats babies"
"Stephen Harper needs a stylist" [26 members]
"Stephen Harper is a cylon" [23 members]
"Jack Layton lives on my street" [1 member]

Labels:

posted by calgarygrit at 4:34 a.m.

13 Comments:

  • Suprinsingly though, Facebook is a good way to reach to the younger student population (other that harass them going to/coming out of class).

    Also kinda of it's neat that you can have upcoming events, of political nature for instance, sent to all friends and group members. A cheap way of doing publicity, minus the never ending spam-mail.

    By Blogger Vicky, at 4:47 a.m.  

  • I have the feeling that the Facebook "Jack Layton" is not the real one.

    First of all, Olivia Chow (317 friends) just recently got onto Facebook, with messages from New Democratic Facebook Groups informing people that she was on Facebook.

    Second of all, there would have been heavy promotion of Layton's presence among us Dippers.

    Third of all "Layton" is not listed among Olivia Chow's friends.

    So if the real Jack Layton (please stand up) actually took the time to get on Facebook, then he'd have lots of friends.

    By Blogger Northern BC Dipper, at 5:55 a.m.  

  • A few suggestions:

    1) A good one for "Calgary Grits":

    JASON KENNEY IS RIDICULOUS
    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2242284217


    2) For Young Liberals in BC:

    YOUNG LIBERAL BRITISH COLUMBIANS (YLCBC)
    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2230912846

    3) For Liberals Everywhere:

    I'M VOTING LIBERAL IN 2007, AND SO SHOULD YOU
    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2222437315

    By Blogger Braeden Caley, at 6:10 a.m.  

  • I'm one of Dion's 1,086 Facebook friends. I'm assuming some eager volunteer or young staffer maintains his profile. Or maybe it's just some pretender. Either way, I think it's cool :-)

    By Blogger CanadianRyan, at 10:55 a.m.  

  • That's one of the silliest and stupidest posts I have seen in a long time.

    By Blogger George, at 11:20 a.m.  

  • So shall we expect a campaign to "lend me your friendship" in the next couple of weeks?

    By Blogger deaner, at 1:41 p.m.  

  • Don't forget us 89 members in the "I [heart] Dalton" group.

    By Blogger UWHabs, at 1:57 p.m.  

  • From a new Ipsos Reid poll:
    Who would make the best Prime Minister?
    Stephen Harper 46%
    Jack Layton 29%
    Stephane Dion 25%

    But hey, at least Dion wins on facebook against the fake Jack Layton profile.

    By Blogger Erin Sikora, at 3:24 p.m.  

  • what happened to werner?...he's sooo angry all the time now!

    By Blogger canuckistanian, at 3:44 p.m.  

  • Amusing. I would hope that the one member of Jack Layton lives on my street has the initials "O.C." That is, if Layton himself didn't start this group! : )

    By Blogger Art de Triomphe, at 3:52 p.m.  

  • With respect, Facebook and $1.25 gets you a cup of Tim's these days.

    By Blogger Erik Sorenson, at 1:18 a.m.  

  • Michael Ignatieff: 1583 friends (obviously not enough of them were delegates)

    *Snort*

    I don't even have a facebook account and I'm 17 years old.

    By Blogger Yining Su, at 8:22 p.m.  

  • There is also the

    Jamie Carroll Fan Club

    which promped the creation of the facebook profile for

    Mark Marrisen

    just so he could be a member.


    Oh, and at 3:22 AM, February 7th, Michael Ignatieff and Stephane Dion became Facebook Friends.

    By Blogger Matthew Naylor, at 9:41 p.m.  

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