Canadians on Twitter love Toronto, Drake and Barack Obama

The social media platform compiled its year-end data. Some of the hottest Canadians include vlogger Lilly Singh, Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds, hip-hopper Drake and... suburban councillor Norm Kelly.
By Bree Rody
December 6, 2016

The only thing hotter than Drake’s newest album is a photo of a Google search marking Barack Obama’s reign as president.

That’s according to Twitter Canada’s 2016 year-end data, which explored some of the biggest Twitter trends and personalities throughout the year.

The outgoing U.S. president was the subject of the most re-Tweeted post in Canada. The Tweet, posted days before the recent U.S. election, pointed to the clock ticking on Obama’s impending exit from the oval office.

 

The other top re-Tweeted posts were two from hip-hop artist Drake (announcing his new album’s track list and a preview of his release Views From the 6ix) and singer Justin Bieber celebrating his birthday and what appeared to just be a good mood.

Bieber’s happiness may have been because of his own social media success — the singer became only the second Twitter user to reach 90 million followers on the platform, making him the first Canadian to do so (American singer Katy Perry was the first).

When it came to topics of conversation, the most popular hashtag in Canada was #BellLetsTalk, the telco’s annual awareness and charity campaign to promote awareness of mental health (#MentalHealth also occupied the number-seven spot).

A rep for Twitter confirmed that #BellLetsTalk was promoted as a hashtag for one day (Jan. 27) and that some of its traffic came from the promotion, however much of the activity around the hashtag was organic. He would not provide the breakdown for organic versus paid traffic on the hashtag, however he did add that #BellLetsTalk had 98% more activity than the number-two hashtag of the year.

If there was ever any doubt that Toronto is the centre of the universe for most Canadians, Twitter proved it — the hashtag #Toronto was the second-most Tweeted hashtag of 2016, ahead of #Canada by one spot (the ninth and tenth spot on the list also went to Toronto sports teams; the Raptors’ #WeTheNorth and the Jays #OurMoment, respectively).

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that prime minister Justin Trudeau was the Canadian politician with the most interactions on Twitter — the young PM is also the country’s first politician to reach two million followers on the platform (perhaps he has his two shirtless photobombing incidents to thank for some of that success).

But second behind the PM himself and coming in ahead of premieres, leadership candidates and even his own mayor was suburban Toronto councillor/friend of Drake, Norm Kelly. On top of the seemingly impossible feat of securing the Twitter handle @norm, Toronto’s former deputy mayor boasts nearly half a million followers and manages to attract thousands of re-Tweets even on a post as simple as one reading: “Snow!”

Rounding out the top-five most-mentioned politicians were Ontario premiere Kathleen Wynne, former MP Jason Kenney and Toronto mayor John Tory.

The top-five most mentioned sports teams were the Toronto Blue Jays, Toronto Raptors, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers. The most popular individual athletes for interactions were former Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban (now with the Nashville Predators), tennis player Eugenie Bouchard, Oilers captain Connor McDavid, Blackhawks centre Jonathan Toews and tennis star Milos Raonic. According to a recent Twitter deep-dive in sports, most Canadian Twitter users value a re-Tweet from their favourite sports teams and athletes more than an autograph.

For actors, Ryan Reynolds, Shay Mitchell, Stephen Amell, Nina Dobrev and Seth Rogen were among the top most talked-about, while musicians Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Drake, Sebastian Olzanski and The Weeknd were also recognized in their respected category.

Twitter also looked at the most-mentioned digital creators, with Torontonian Lilly Singh coming out on top, followed by Faze Rain, Crawford Collins, Typical Gamer and LaurDIY.

Media In Canada, which currently boasts 13,700 followers, failed to crack the top accounts in Canada.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock