Below you will find Canada’s Top 25 Political Blogs for October. These are ranked according to a combination of influence and web traffic. You can read the specifics of that here.
I have de-politicized the sidebar of my blog for a few days to allow people from other parties to link over without hesitation. Huge changes on the list, especially with both Steyn and Levant on hiatus, and my dropping of a certain prominent single issue blog from the list.
If there’s something I left out – please let me know in the comments section below.
Current Rank Site Google Page Rank Alexa Traffic Rank September Rank
- Western Standard Shotgun Blog | Google PR6 | Alexa 143475 | SR 6|
- Small Dead Animals | Google PR6 | Alexa 155608 | SR 2 |
- Ghost of a Flea | Google PR6 | Alexa 186545 | SR 8 |
- Matthew Good| Google PR6 | Alexa 202928 | SR 3 |
- Daimnation! | Google PR6 | Alexa 417858 | SR 5 |
- Five Feet of Fury | Google PR5 | Alexa: 170082 | SR 7 |
- Warren Kinsella | Google PR5 | Alexa: 193163 | SR 16 |
- A Dime a Dozen etc… | Google PR5 | Alexa: 278832 | SR 14 |
- Bow. James Bow | Google PR5 | Alexa: 332255 | SR 10 |
- Garth Turner | Google PR5 | Alexa: 338235 | SR 11 |
- David Akin | Google PR5 | Alexa: 342361 | SR 20 |
- Dr. Dawg | Google PR5 | Alexa: 367099 | SR 18 |
- Jason Cherniak | Google PR5 | Alexa: 372684 | SR 24 |
- Blazing Cat Fur | Google PR5 | Alexa: 375281 | SR — |
- Canadian Cynic | Google PR5 | Alexa: 378392 | SR 12 |
- Marginalized Action Dinosaur | Google PR5 | Alexa: 389305 | SR — |
- Stephen Taylor | Google PR5 | Alexa 411700 | SR — |
- Abandoned Stuff | Google PR5 | Alexa: 434797 | SR 15 |
- Steynian | Google PR5 | Alexa: 468083 | SR 19 |
- Jay Currie | Google PR5 | Alexa: 476695 | SR 25 |
- Galloping Beaver | Google PR6 | Alexa: 520409* | SR 22 |
- GenXat40 | Google PR5 | Alexa: 533083 | SR 17 |
- Right Girl | Google PR5 | Alexa: 560481 | SR –|
- Steve Janke | Google PR5 | Alexa: 567055 | SR — |
- Big City Lib | Google PR5 | Alexa: 636756 | SR 21 |
WEBMASTERS: Go ahead and steal any ‘Top 25′ graphics.
Before you ask, RedTory, StageLeft, CalgaryGrit, Scott Tribe finished 26-29 respectively. Beyond that, I don’t remember.
The whole ranking is rubbish because its very premise is wrong. You manually selects a bunch of blogs and then look up their data on Alexa (which is 100% unreliable).
If a pollster used the same subjective method, e.g., by excluding the Conservatives from the choices given to respondents, even Dion could come out the winner.
Unless you come up with a scientific ranking, rather than this subjective hodgepodge, it really doesn’t mean much.
357153 is the Alexa ranking I’ve had for the last weeks give or take 20,000, how’d you get 434797 this time?
And I of course think it’s a mistake to count Geist as a one issue blog. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/
You’re at 314067 today according to my Alexa tool thingy in Firefox.
Anyway, I don’t mean to be too negative, especially since I appreciate the time you put into doing this. Thanks for that.
The Alexa toolbar number is averaged over 3 months – so to get something more contemporary, I switched to counting weeklies numbers a few months ago.
Yes, I agree that this is a good thing and an effort to be applauded.
I do note my Alexa is 371,629 which would put me about ten ranks higher if that were the one factor. But today SDA is 140,133, the Flea is at 221,633 and bowing James Bow is at 252,409 – all off the numbers above.
I can only suspect Robert is grabbing a point with the rankings in time that shifts. Knowing nothing about the stuff that goes into this, I trust he is doing as best as his own time’s worth allows.
All I can ask is that this be expanded to a top 30, 40 and 50 as I continue to slip!
Snap! Simul-comment
Blogging BS…
Robert Jago is without doubt one of the quality bloggers in Canada. But his ranking of blogs is not only highly subjective, but also based on totally unreliable data, and therefore complete rubbish. Problem number 1: Robert selects the blogs he include…
Well thank God you take Visa.
Robert,
Thanks for doing this and for the great ranking over the summer. While I think that a good argument could be made that my blog is not a political blog (though it is involved in non-partisan political advocacy), I never thought of it as a single issue blog.
In the month of September, I blogged about copyright, the do-not-call list, digital issues in the election campaign, attempts to trademark words in the national anthem, open access to research, blocking Facebook at Concordia University, cultural funding, online public policy consultations, and the impact of an “Internet that never forgets”. What is my single issue?
Michael Geist
I have a hunch that the single issue is that your blog trumps SDA and Shotgun, both of which Robert is very fond of. ;-)
Thanks for explaining the Alexa methodology Robert, it makes more sense now.
[...] moment of blog navel gazing: Abandoned Stuff is still in the Top 25 Canadian Political blogs this month. Michael Geist was dropped from the list, under what I feel isn’t a valid reason, [...]
[...] http://rjjago.wordpress.com/2008/10/01/canadas-top-25-political-blogs-october-election-edition/ Commenters who threaten anyone while here because they are not smart enough to come up with a better answer will have some due diligence done on them. Foul mouthed lefty posters beware. [...]
[...] We Don’t Suck! .. or so says Jago’s List-Thingy. [...]
Oh Dear…Small Dead Animals and Five Feet of Fury out-performed Kinsella.
Another one (Canada’s Machiavelli at that) kicked under the bus.
So that blog was a single issue blog…and then it wasn’t…and then it was again? I didn’t notice any change in the kinds of things on that blog during the time it supposedly transitioned from non-single issue to single issue…
SB – the issue with that blog is that it only talks about law and technology issues. I had a few other blogs sent to me last month that are as narrowly focused, talking just about law, just about the environment, just about abortion. I didn’t include those either.
And SB – who is more relevant in this election? Michael Geist or Big City Lib? I add one, that throws the other off the list.
I need to get around to writing clear definitions.
Law, environment and technology *are* politics. Each one impacts practically every aspect of the political sphere and is a proxy for discussion on those political issues. Unless you are very careful and scientific, and try to remain politically neutral(almost impossible), each of these issues are as political as you can get, without being completely void of any content. Geist is not completely neutral, ergo, he is political. Do the Canadian blogosphere justice and include these law, environment and tech blogs as politics.
Thank you for putting all of those blogs in one place! In perusing them, I noticed that so many of them are paying very close attention to what is happening in our country. That is a good example of how our nation and the election will affect the entire world.
[...] We’ve got a Top 25 Political blogger reading list for you here – Thanks to the Dime A Dozen Political Blog – & that should keep you talking-points-primed for the first two courses. [...]
[...] Bloggers: the top 25 political bloggers [...]