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Don't think Harper had a choice on this one, it had to be done. To say Stephen is another Jean is a stretch. Wait and see, Jean was a thug. His management style was steeped in backroom deals. Although this has the potential to set the same stage I see Harper with a lot of newbies on the hill that frankly need to be told when to wag their tongues and not before and frankly a party whip can't be everywhere at once.

In short, no I don't like the move but I understand it.

   

anyone who thinks that being accessible to the media guarantees that the govt will be open and honest need only look to see how well that went over with the Liberal Party of Canada

   

Wooooo tinfoil hat time.

Spinning...about what?.....manipulate...about what?....what truth?

Seems like the manipulation and spin is written in your post.

   

Scape that's true and I concede that point, but so far this is shaping up to be a government of silence and aragence. The only time we hear anything is to spin ill conceved ideas or ones that are just plain wrong. The things that are said to justify these decisions are spun in such a way as to tell the canadian public that is just the way it is going to be. I have also heard media spin artists work a line of BS that is so mindless that it makes me wonder if they actually think we are THAT stupid we will just belive it. Perhapes that is what the PMO wants. An extra moment to revise even their own spin.

   

Our friend Mr. Bush don't like unscripted press dealings either. Perhaps the time of open governments, democratic or not, is coming to an end. Even freedom of information ain't free and sometimes anything but easy.

   

Let's not confuse free speech and being a complete idiot.

If you were sitting with your family at a restaurant and a man stood next to your table and heckled you and your family....would it just be "free speech"?

   

I'm not sure about putting a gag order on the cabinet as I am extremely impressed with it. They are professional and intelligent. With the exception of Michael Fortier, and David Emerson, this is the best cabinet I have seen.

However, these are people who have not worked together, and if the media asks them a couple of tough questions (Do you believe in two tier healthcare? What do you think about defense?), and two cabinet ministers answer in different ways...Look out! I can see the headlines already! "What Is This Government Doing?" Cabinet Disagreement!!" "Harper Cannot Maintain Control Over Caucus Infighting!!"

And be sure that they will answer in different ways. Vic Toews and Josee Verner? Loyola Hearn and Gary Lunn? All ascribe to different views. ideas, and beliefs.

So I guess, for now, this is the best thing.

   

I'm not buying it, Scape. They might have a lot of newbies, but most of them have spent years in the public eye.

Harper had a gag order on his candidates during the election as well. Most of them had run before, Harper just didn't want them speaking to the press because they hold some very unpopular views.

Chretien actually let his cabinet ministers talk to the press a fair bit. Martin too. The last leader to try this level of arrogance was Mulroney. The press ate him alive for it, rightly so. Before Mulroney, Trudeau tried the same thing. The press went after him big time too.

Both Mulroney and Trudeau tried it early in terms where they had majority governments and it didn't work for them. Harper has neither their power, nor time to get the press back onside before an election. This will bite him in the ass.

It won't work either. The press aren't backing down...they want the mics upstairs outside the cabinet meeting rooms. The opposition parties have no intention of sticking to Harper's five point agenda, and they aren't afraid of press scrums. The situations that come up won't stick to that agenda either. A lot of things come up that the government can't control the timing of.

I wonder if people inside Harper's party will even stand for it for long. Politicians generally like TV time because it helps them get re-elected. The worst TV time they can get is to be seen running away from the TV cameras, which is what Harper is leaving them.

I think this is a major political error on Harper's part. He never liked the press, now it looks like he's afraid of them and contemptuous of the abilities of his own cabinet ministers. He's liable to have the press turn on him and to have people in his government start leaking things and making anonymous statements.

   

The press turn on him? Like the way the CBC openly endorsed the liberals in every election in the last 20 years.Who in his position would trust the press, who are just waiting to exploit any little slip to further their Liberal agenda. The same press that has members blaming Stephen Harper for excalating our mission in Afghanistan! Convieniently forgetting it was the Liberals that first sent us to Kandahar, then Kabul and now back to Kandahar.
I don't think it is a wise move either but I can understand his motives. As an aside Rev, I love how Jack now wants a debate when he was missing from the last talk on troops deployments in Nov.. Ah, but now he has zero ability to affect anything, no more balance of power and blackmailing the liberals to get his agenda across as the conservatives will ignore him and his party.

Once again, I say Harper will have to remove the muzzle eventually, but for the time being it might be prudent to get all the ministers together and make sure they are all on the same page!

   

Any information on the five promises must be cleared by officials in the office of prime minister Stephen Harper. The five priorities are a Federal accountability Act; a reduction in the Goods and Services Tax; a child-care allowance; tougher criminal sentences; and a guarantee that waiting times in hospitals for patients will be reduced. The controls are part of the Conservative government strategy to show the public they are different from the previous Liberal government in handling sensitive policy issues.

I agree that face time is being denied to the MP's at this point. If this situation remains it could set the government up to be seen as out of touch on key issues but MP's are not truly being gaged here they simply must clear action via the PM's office 1st. If the government is to keep on message it would be prudent to invest in a disciplined focus. I would not recommend such a management structure as it lends itself to be cumbersome and a lot of extra work for the PM but in this case because there is only 5 issues and they want that to be the focus this move suits that agenda. If there was anything more on the table (and I am sure the opposition will clamor for it!) then it would be an unworkable arrangement.

The press being told where they can ambush is not a travesty to the freedom of the press, they can still do their job downstairs. The press in the UK is brutal to the point of tabloid tasteless and the press in the US is docile to the point of being superfluous. I would like to think our press on the hill strikes a balance between the two but being told where they can do their job is not a draconian measure by any stretch.

   

Ok, so what your saying is that he wants everyone on the same page...thinking the same thing....voting...the same way.

So that when they talk to the press they all talk in unison....same words, same ideas....structure. Ya, I dont think we elected different MPs from different parts of the country to sit under harper to bend to his every whim. They have thier own minds, if they have differing views on what harper wants to do, then they should be openly allowed to speak it. The cons where all about free votes and open ideas on the SSM vote. Has that changed now that they are "in power"? Now they all must think his way?

Whatever, its all bullshit. All we can do is wait for them to sit down and see how far down we go Not that I am suggesting we will.....

   

Apparently you haven't been paying attention. The CBC doesn't endorse anybody.

Mansbridge gave Harper a much lighter ride in his one on one with Harper than he did with Layton or Martin though. Watch the tapes.

The CBC has been shilling the Afghanistan thing to the point where I'm beginning to wonder whether Mansbridge and O'Reilly have more in common than hair loss. Have you heard Rex Murphy in the last twenty years? The man is so far right that he has to stand sideways to piss.

The CBC leans towards whoever is in power, just like they always have. When Chretien left and Martin came to power, the one notable left-wing show (Counterspin) disappeared. That will continue to happen until the CBC's funding stops being politicised. That they maintain the amount of independence they do is because of the integrity of their journalists.

Never mind the CBC though...look at the endorsements Harper had in the mainstream press in the last election. Compare that to endorsements for the NDP or parties further left. Now sit there and try to tell us the press is Canada is left leaning. Christ, just because Linda McQuaig hasn't been arrested yet doesn't mean that the press is liberal. Pay attention to reality for a change.



What talk? You mean the short take note debate? Blaikie was there speaking. There was no vote. There was nothing. With the Liberals and the Conservatives fighting over who got to suck on Georgie first, there wasn't much point in pushing the point either.



Is that like a Bible reading, or the same page of the memos the Republican National Congress sends them?



You're forgetting the context though, Scape. This isn't the first edict Harper has issued telling his party memebers to shut up. This is a PM who, when in opposition, made a point of controlling what his people could say in public. During the last election his people were not only not allowed to talk to the press, but went unrepresented at all candidates debates because Harper didn't want them speaking in public. Let's not forget him kicking the shit out of furniture at the policy convention either...seems he loses his temper when he can't control every word the press hears.

This isn't about the five priorities or staying on message. Send your closest CPC MP a question about abortion or Iraq or childcare or drug policy or taxes or Afghanistan or Kyoto child poverty or anything else and you'll get no answer. Same thing if you direct the question to a minister. Same thing if it goes right to Stevie himself. At least the Liberals had the decency to send out a completely inadequate form letter.



It's not an ambush. There have been mics set up there since I was a little kid, and I'm middle aged now. The press are being forced into a situation where they have to resort to ambush to get their story. They will, if they are doing their job, stand on MP's doorsteps at 6 in the morning or follow ministers to restaurants. The press is supposed to have an adversarial relationship with the government, no matter who that government is. If they don't, then we have a problem. Our politicians are answerable to us, and much of that happens through the press. If our local representatives are muzzled, then they cannot be answerable.



I'd like to think that the Fort Garry Brewing Company will suddenly pay me for plugging their products, but it ain't gonna happen. I end up plugging their products because they have products worth plugging. Perhaps our politicians should try doing as good a job as the people who make the beer I drink. Instead, the Conservatives make the kind of slop that those Minhaus Creek people sell and the Liberals brew the kind of crap that Molson's pawns off as drinkable. Hmmm...neither of those beers is really Canadian. Funny how that worked out.

   

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