Blogging Tories

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Main article: Canadian blogosphere

Blogging Tories is the name of a group of Canadian bloggers who come from the centre, centre-right and right-wing of the political spectrum. The Blogging Tories are composed of many individual blogs, whose content is aggregated on the main Blogging Tories website.

Founded by bloggers Stephen Taylor and Craig Smith, the Blogging Tories have grown to include approximately 300 blogs. This has allowed them to become the largest group of political bloggers in Canada and they are collectively viewed by over 30,000 people every day. They are a part of the larger Canadian blogosphere, along with Progressive Bloggers, Blogging Dippers and Liblogs.

[edit] Extended Role

The Blogging Tories website has extended well beyond its original role as a collection of Canadian conservative blogs. It currently serves as a central hub for national conservative NGOs including the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and the National Citizens Coalition. Blogging Tories founder Stephen Taylor addressed the inaugural meeting of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy on the floor of the Toronto Stock Exchange, speaking about blogs and the importance of the Blogging Tories to conservative politics in Canada. The Manning Centre is a new initiative to enable Canadian conservative groups that was started by former Leader of the Opposition, Preston Manning.

[edit] Gomery

Perhaps the Blogging Tories' most notable influence upon Canadian politics came during the Gomery inquiry during which Groupaction president Jean Brault's testimony was covered by a publication ban. A member of the group acquired transcripts of that testimony and leaked it to Captain's Quarters, an American blog not affected by the publication ban. Blogging Tories members were encouraged to link to the American website, and by the following Friday Justice Gomery suggested that the "genie had been let out of the bottle" and lifted the publication ban. Popular support for the Liberal Party of Canada dropped significantly.

Other notable events include the Abotech affair, the Grewal-Dosanji-Reid taping controversy and a defense of Stephen Harper from an attack against his leadership by Tory dissident Carol Jamieson.