Stephen Harper says journalists on Parliament Hill are biased against his government and have decided to become the opposition to his Conservative administration.
So he'll be avoiding them.
Mr. Harper has outlined two complaints.
First, he told a London, Ont., TV station Wednesday that he is having more problems with reporters in the capital than a Liberal prime minister would never face.
Second, the Parliamentary Press Gallery has "unfortunately . . . taken the view they are going to be the opposition to the government," Mr. Harper told London's A-Channel.
So Mr. Harper said he will take his message out on the road and deal with the less-hostile local media.
The prime minister was pressed on the issue again yesterday in Vancouver — by the very same local media he's courting.
As Jeff Sallot reports in today's Globe PM presses on in feud with media , Mr. Harper did get one question from a local reporter about whether the Ottawa-based media are "elitist." However, another local reporter asked him if he was being "childish" while a third responded to one prime ministerial answer with the observation "with respect . . . that's simply not true."
The prime minister tried to play down the dispute by saying: "I don't think this story is really of much interest to most ordinary people."
The evidence on globeandmail.com suggests a different story. A story about Mr. Harper's remarks in London, Ont., was the second-most widely-read story on our site yesterday. As well, it provoked a strong reaction with more than 300 comments , pro and con, posted on globeandmail.com
Is Mr. Harper right? All prime ministers complain about their treatment by national media. Is there anything different about this administration?
To help answer those questions, Peter Donolo, left, a former Liberal strategist, and Michel Gratton, a former president of the Parliamentary Press Gallery who later worked as Brian Mulroney's press secretary, were on line earlier Friday to take your questions.
Scroll down to read the questions and answers.
Mr. Donolo was director of communications for Prime Minister Jean Chrétien from 1993 to 1999, where he oversaw communications strategies for a number of the most important government initiatives and most contentious political and public policy issues of the past decade, also directing the prime minister's personal communications.
He is now executive vice-president of The Strategic Counsel, one of Canada's most respected market research and strategic communications consultants. He leads a consultancy practice that provides strategic communications advice, issues management, crisis communications and long-term reputation counsel for some of the country's most prominent corporate leaders. His specialty is working on projects of intense public and media exposure with compressed timeframes.
Mr. Gratton was former prime minister Brian Mulroney's press secretary. He wrote a book about the experience in 1987 called So, What Are the Boys Saying? A Candid Look at Brian Mulroney in Power and a follow-up in 1990 called Still the Boss: A Candid Look at Brian Mulroney.
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Jim Sheppard, Executive Editor, globeandmail.com: Peter and Michel, thanks for joining us today to take questions from the readers of globeandmail.com about the current dispute between Prime Minister Harper and the Parliamentary Press Gallery. I guess the first thing most readers want to know is pretty simple. There have been disputes between the Ottawa-based media and every PMO that I can recall dating back decades. You've both seen this first-hand. So, is this just the latest variation on that theme? Or is there something different about either the way the Ottawa-based media is treating Mr. Harper or about the way the prime minister is treating the Ottawa-based media?
