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Leaders' debate was just as fierce on the social media stage

Sunday's leaders' debate capped the busiest day of election-related traffic Twitter Canada has seen since the campaign officially started.

Sunday was the busiest day for tweets about the Ontario election since the campaign began

Mike Wise · CBC News ·
Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford, centre, speaks as Ontario Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne, left, and Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath look on during the third and final televised debate of the provincial election campaign in Toronto on Sunday. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

Sunday night's leaders' debate was a hit online.

According to Twitter Canada, Sunday was the most active day for political discussions and engagement since the campaign began.

The social network says Ontario Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne led the way in terms of mentions online, followed closely by PC Leader Doug Ford, with NDP Leader Andrea Horwath trailing.

Wynne's opening statement that she was "sorry not sorry" that more voters didn't like her was accompanied by its own hashtag:

On both Twitter and Facebook, the Liberal Party released a campaign ad during the debate, based on her lines of contrition, where she went on to defend her party's record.

The Ontario Liberal Party released this ad online during the leaders' debate (Facebook)

Some of Doug Ford's most well-received posts dealt with his attacks on the NDP.

Meanwhile, Andrea Horwath scored with some of her attacks on Ford.

Twitter said the top issues discussed online were health care, the records of previous governments and concern over the deficit.

The prominence of health care may have been due in part to an active social media campaign run by the group Your Ontario Doctors, which is encouraging doctors to vote against the Liberals.

CBC News tracked more than 280 messages from the group's Twitter account during the time of the debate.

Most of those tweets were replies to tweets from Kathleen Wynne or other Liberal candidates during the debate.

(Twitter)

The group accused the Liberals of co-opting its #carenotcuts hashtag by promoting #careovercuts during the debate.

The Liberals's version cracked into the top ten hashtags of the night, according to Twitter Canada:

  • #onpoli
  • #ondebate
  • #onelxn
  • #ontariovotes
  • #dougford
  • #sorrynotsorry
  • #change4better
  • #ontario
  • #careovercuts
  • #cdnpoli

Because the Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner was not allowed to participate in the debate, he live streamed his own commentary on Facebook.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner live streamed his own response to the leaders' debate. (Facebook)

By Monday morning at 10:45 a.m., that stream had attracted about 7,200 views. 

Corrections

  • A previous version of this story stated that Mike Schreiner's Facebook live stream attracted 47,000 views. In fact, as of 10:45 a.m. on Monday, it had attracted approximately 7,200 views.
    May 28, 2018 10:42 AM ET

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Wise

Host, CBC Toronto News at 11

Mike Wise is the anchor of CBC Toronto News at 11. Mike grew up in Brampton, but now calls North York home. He started at CBC when he was just 17 years old, as part of a high-school Co-Op placement. Mike is married and teaches journalism part-time at Humber College.

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