The number of twitter followers for possible future Prime Ministers of Canada:
As of 12 March 2011: @M_Ignatieff 61,415; @pmharper 98,164; @jacklayton 57,824; @gillesduceppe 44,550; @elizabethmay 11,447.
As of 30 March 2011: @M_Ignatieff 74,988; @pmharper 113,192; @jacklayton 68,622; @gillesduceppe 49,637; @elizabethmay 15,390.
Elizabeth May has experienced the largest percentage increase in the number of followers, 34 percent, followed by Michael Ignatieff at 22 percent. However in terms of the absolute number of followers, May has experienced the smallest increase, just 3,943 more followers.
Stephen Harper has had the largest absolute increase in numbers, at 15,028, though his percentage increase, 15 percent, is below that of all the other leaders except Ignatieff. Michael Ignatieff saw his number of twitter followers increase by 13,573 in absolute terms.
(For a more extensive analysis, go to http://politwitter.ca/page/statistics which shows a dramatic increase in the amount of Conservative tweeting.)
What does this mean?
That 99.97 percent of Canadians would rather listen to Rebecca Black's Friday (slowcore Brian Eno sound-alike here) or watch epic meals on youtube than follow @pmharper on twitter.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
What does this mean? That 99.97 percent of Canadians would rather listen to Rebecca Black’s Friday (slowcore Brian Eno sound-alike here) or watch epic meals on youtube than follow @pmharper on twitter.
Public choice theory vindicated? Sounds to me like a textbook case of rational ignorance.
Prof. Woolley, thanks so much for this. A new leading political indicator! Which I’ll be posting on by Toronto Star blog, with appropriate credit of course. (I’ve greatly appreciated your recent posts on the spiral in education costs, as well – all printed out and filed for future reference.)
Cheers and thanks again, David Olive
I’d rather listen to the Bob Dylan version of Friday, myself.
And, while I follow political discourse, I wouldn’t follow any politician on Twitter, because with the possible exception of Tony Clement’s tweets last year about stealing TicTacs from John Baird, (and his fights over UBB and DRM) you get the impression that none of these accounts are updated by the actual person, but are instead the creation of communications assistants. They are generally pretty bland promotional stuff with little substance.
About Twitter: I still do not understand why we all should know that “your politician is going to the toilet”…that’s Twitter to me!