She spoke the fewest words, but came out on top.
Mark Blinch / Reuters
Green party leader Elizabeth May has always struggled to be included in election debates. But an analysis of tweets sent during #MacDebate suggests she emerged as the dominant and most influential voice.
BuzzFeed Canada is working with social data analysis platform Nexalogy to track and analyze online discussion about the federal election. In advance of, and during, last night's debate, Nexalogy captured all of the tweets sent using the #MacDebate hashtag.
We then used its platform to dig into the data and see which trends stood out. May's success is one clear storyline. The data also showed that Thomas Mulcair of the NDP did a good job linking Prime Minister Stephen Harper with a recession.
Prior to the debate, the most influential Twitter accounts were, in order: @MacleansMag, @ElizabethMay, @JustinTrudeau, @PMHarper, @InklessWells (the moderator), and @ThomasMulcair.
To gauge influence, Nexalogy uses a combination of tweets mentioning the account, and the retweets and replies that those tweets receive.
Nexalogy
After the debate was over, Elizabeth May owned the top spot. She was followed by Trudeau, Harper and Mulcair. The Green Party account was also the most influential party account.
The candidates kept the same order as before, but it's notable that the fourth-place candidate who has often not been in debates was in the end the most influential on Twitter. Her supporters did a good job talking her up prior to the debate. Then she built on that during the event itself.
On top of her personal impact, the Green party's account was also more influential than any of the others.
Nexalogy