Harper says he's finished with Ottawa press corps

[nds76]

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he'll no longer give news conferences for the national media, after a dispute led a number of journalists to walk away from an event when he refused to take their questions.

Speaking to A-Channel in London, Ont., Harper said "unfortunately the press gallery has taken the view they are going to be the opposition to the government."

"They don't ask questions at my press conferences now. We'll just take the message out on the road. There's lots of media who do want to ask questions and hear what the government is doing."

Since becoming prime minister in January, Harper has had a testy relationship with the national media in Ottawa. His staff has tried to manage news conferences by saying they will decide which reporters get to ask questions.

The press gallery has refused to play by those rules. "We can't accept that the Prime Minister's Office would decide who gets to ask questions," Yves Malo, a TVA reporter and president of the press gallery, told CP on Tuesday. "Does that mean that when there's a crisis they'll only call upon journalists they expect softball questions from?"

On Tuesday about two dozen Ottawa reporters walked out on a Harper event when he refused to take their questions.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/yourspace/harper_media.html

[1Yukari2]

HARPER's an idiot , a parrot BUSH -lite. He only has a minority government.If he keeps this up , he will loose the next election.

[Roger]

I fervently hope that Harper does lose the next election but right now things look bleak. The latest polls show that if an election were held today, Harper would win a majority government. I think people have been impressed with Harper's decisiveness. But for sure a majority Conservative government would be a disaster for Canada. Harper is an ideologue who has absolutely no interest or skill in compromise.

But Harper has already sown the seeds of his own downfall. It is not a good idea to annoy the Parliamentary press in the long run. He has rammed through Parliament a commitment to stay another two years in Afghanistan. Once the number of fallen Canadian soldiers gets past a certain point, Canadians will vote for anyone who promises to pull us out. The question is whether these seeds will have time to take root before the next election.

[1Yukari2]

Lets hope so because we have all seen this movie already , somewhere else.The Liberals need KEN DRYDEN as their new leader , not some one who was for the IRAQ war , voted to extend the AFGAN mission and who has lived in the U.S. for 30 years.

The LIBERALS really blew that one.Allot of Liberals were really mad , like I was. I wrote them at the Liberal web site and they gave me a list of who voted YES and NO. They also wrote me that they recieved many , many angry letters like my e-mail.

You should write them too.

[Roger]

Did you notice that Paul Martin was absent for that vote?