Much Ado About Nothing: PM Refuses to Govern by ‘Photo-Op’

March 29, 2006

These are exciting times in the Nation’s Capital, no matter what your political stripe. A change in government has taken place for the first time in twelve-and-a-half years. Adding to the suspense, it’s a minority government.

The entire federal government is positively brimming with frenzied activity as Parliament gets set to resume next Monday.

Yet what is the BIG news story filling airtime and making headlines in some of Canada’s larger media outlets? Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s refusal to pose for ‘touchy-feely’ photo-ops, and the inability of reporters in the Parliamentary Press Gallery to ambush cabinet ministers as they step into a cramped corridor following their cabinet meetings.

This is not about access to information or the public’s right to know through a free and open press. Don’t be misled by headlines proclaiming “secret” cabinet meetings and an even more secretive Prime Minister. The meetings aren’t secret. Reporters just aren’t being formally invited to lie-in-wait outside the door. They’ve simply been invited to move their media ‘scrums’ to another area, such as the expansive lobby just outside the House of Commons chamber.

I’ve spoken to a number of reporters who are bemused by the fuss created by some of their colleagues. These reporters tell me they’re still able to contact cabinet ministers to pose questions or conduct interviews in order to complete their news stories. They’ve also pointed to ministers who have made themselves readily available to appear on national television programs.

The circus event that takes place outside the doors of the cabinet room is not about obtaining information to convey to the Canadian pubic. It’s about ‘sound bites’ and catching ministers ‘off-guard’. How does that ensure informed knowledge for the public?

Being a new minister is like cramming for an exam on which you must obtain 100%, except the examination begins the first day of school. Granted, my colleagues knew this is what they were signing up for in agreeing to lead a federal department. Yet it is blatantly unfair for the press to falsely cry ‘media blackout’ or ‘secrecy’ because a new minister might not be immediately eager to walk into a sea of shouting reporters and step up to the microphone.

Like most of my colleagues, I value reporters for the job they do in keeping my constituents updated on my work. That’s why I do my best, sometimes under intense time constraints, to respect their deadlines. The idea that the Prime Minister or any of my colleagues oppose this mutually-beneficial relationship is absurd.

The other part of this news story of supposed ‘national importance’ is the Prime Minister’s refusal to pose with animal rights activist and famed French actress Brigitte Bardot. He also created a storm of protest from the press corps because he didn’t invite them to photograph him with a cute little girl, who is suffering from cancer, as she presented him with a bouquet of daffodils as part of the Canadian Cancer Society’s annual fundraising drive.

What kind of politician refuses opportunities like that?! You’d think this Prime Minister was preoccupied with something else … like leading or governing the country.

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