Harper puts daily limit on questions from the media
Posted April 5, 2011 7:26 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA (NEWS1130) – Conservative Leader Stephen Harper‘s management of the media has become the story for a lot of reporters following him on the campaign trail.
Maclean’s Magazine writer Paul Wells is on the campaign bus. He says Harper has imposed a strict limit of five questions per day from reporters.
Speaking live on the News1130 Morning Show, Wells believes the story has become more of an issue for journalists than voters.
“I frankly wish we hadn’t made quite as much of a fuss about this and I wish we had devoted less space to talking about this and more to talking about events that concern real people. The fact is we can’t ask the Prime Minister about situations that concern real people, we can’t press the Prime Minister for straight answers on things like the costs of his programs, promises he’s made in the past that he hasn’t kept, things like that.”
Wells adds that’s because they can’t do what they normally do which is ask a question, and then a series of follow-ups. “It’s natural for any politician to kind of try and back away and squirm out of a tight spot. It’s easy as pie for the Prime Minister because we can’t chase him around a question the way we do with Michael Ignatieff, and Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe.”
Political scientist Norman Ruff says voters should be as concerned as journalists. “They should be concerned I think, because the journalists help make the Prime Minister more accountable, and the other leaders for that matter. But I don’t think speaking for themselves Canadians feel they are being directly deprived.”
Ruff figures most Canadians have come to regard at least the televised portion of leaders’ tours simply as part of the show.
