A New Shade of Green: Transferring Political Power and Issue Emphasis on Twitter

Within the Canadian political arena, the Green Party is undergoing a shift away from its traditional emphasis on environmentalism, as a recent change in leadership has led to greater emphasis on a more diversified political platform. This shift can be recognized in the ways in which the Green Party, and their new leadership specifically, has formulated a change in the framing of their policy priorities in communications with the electorate and the world at large. One essential arena in which this framing shift has played out is Twitter, which functions as an important avenue through which political leadership may directly communicate with the general public. This paper seeks to better understand the difference in the Green Party Leaders’ framing of issues on Twitter, as well as the impact of this new framing based on user engagement with the various types of Tweet. Comparing those issues emphasized by previous leader, Elizabeth May, to current leader, Annamie Paul, and the resulting engagement generated by these various policy frames, may lead to a better understanding of how the public is reacting to the shift that is currently taking place within the Green Party.