Categories: Capital Read, Inside the Queensway

You'd have to think that threatening to step down if the Tories lose the election would be "something to react to"

by kadyomalley on Sunday, October 12, 2008 12:08am - 0 Comments

You have no idea how much it killed me to leave that preposition dangling like a kitten by the nape of its neck, but what can I do? It’s a direct quote from this Globe and Mail story, which reveals that those media outlets forking out $10,000 a week for a seat on the Conservative tour may spend the next two days serving as an in-house camera crew for the campaign:

Stephen Harper appears to be bunkering down to avoid last-minute mishaps in the final days of the campaign: His staff are warning it’s likely that the Conservative Leader won’t take any more questions from journalists accompanying his tour until election day.

They handed out a schedule for Sunday that has no time set aside for talking to the approximately 20 reporters who are accompanying Mr. Harper on his campaign.

He still has two days of campaigning left – Sunday and Monday – that are expected to take him across Quebec and to Prince Edward Island before possibly wrapping up in Windsor, Ont. and Regina.

Mr. Harper generally only answers questions from the press on his campaign plane once a day – in the morning – and he conducted his last news conference this morning after a whistle-stop in London, Ont.

The Conservative Leader’s staff offer several explanations. One official said it’s simply a question of schedules and that they don’t have enough time to scrum due to the hectic pace of the final two days. Another said that there will be “nothing to react to” over Sunday and Monday.

The same day, he told the Toronto Star editorial board that if his party loses the election – unlikely, but hardly impossible – he isn’t planning on sticking around to lead the Conservative charge against the dreaded Permanent Tax on Everything:

“I’m running to win this election. If I don’t win this election, I’m sure my party will look for another leader,” Harper said.

“That’s a hypothetical that I’m not prepared to entertain. I’m here to obviously elect an agenda that will stop a carbon tax, and the way to do that is to elect a Conservative government. Don’t defeat us then ask us to stop a carbon tax.”

Asked directly whether he would step down as leader if he lost this election, he replied: ” I think it is inevitable that the party that loses this election will be looking for a new leader.”

The Star piece goes on to suggest that really, this is a message to Stephane Dion and the Liberals, but even if that’s the case, I suspect that the tour reporters might want to ask him a few questions about this new threat to take his hockey book and go home rather than face Prime Minister Stephane Dion as Leader of the Official Opposition.

Tags: conservative party, Election Watch, leadership race watch, offending the grammar gods, Stephen Harper, the sound of sullen silence

More by kadyomalley

Jenn

Wascally Wabbit, I was thinking the same thing of Justin. Like, why he’s been following Dion around some places. Training, see? Although, my hope is the Liberals will give him time to grow and learn as an MP (assuming he’s elected) before presenting us with the second coming. But I can see a strategy of keeping Dion as leader for the next three or four years, no matter how the election turns out, while Justin gets ready.
http://www.viewsfromthelake-eh.blogspot.com David B.

I don’t understand why some commenters take exception to the question about Harper’s planned longevity.

After all the Cons have made this entire election about Stephen Harper – right down to “Stephen Harper’s Plan for Canada”. And if Stephen Harper’s plan for Stephen Harper includes stepping down and taking his ball home if he doesn’t get what he wants, where does that leave the people (all 30% of them, or whatever) who voted for him and his “plan” (skinny and self-promoting as it was).

I think it’s a very legitimate question and I would really like to know the answer before Tuesday.
http://carnewsandviews.com jwl

“media outlets forking out $10,000 a week for a seat on the Conservative tour may spend the next two days serving as an in-house camera crew for the campaign”

Since reporters have been doing that for the entire campaign for Libs, I don’t see what the problem is for them to behave that way for two days when it comes to Cons.

MSM have twisted Harper’s words about Dion’s little fiasco the other day so I am not surprised they can’t be bothered with the media anymore.

I think Harper should resign immediately if Cons lose on Tuesday. It was Harper’s strategy to woo Quebec, it was his strategy to govern like Libs and it was his strategy to make it all about himself during the campaign and none of it’s working all that brilliantly. I don’t see why Cons would want to keep him around, nor why Harper would want to continue, if they lose.
john g

Personally I could care less if Harper ever talks to anyone in the PPG again.

Whether you agree with what CTV did or not, a person who invents a fake physical disability to use as a scapegoat whenever he’s embarrassed by his performance, and who likens fair criticism of his performance as a personal attack against people with disabilities, is not just unfit to be PM. Such a person is unfit for public office of any kind.

And any reporter or news organization who aids and abets such a person in such a fraud is also a fraud, and has no business reporting national news in a free country. This is behaviour I would expect to see from the nationalized presses in Cuba or Russia, not from a free press in Canada.

It would appear that Harper is currently surrounded by such reporters. No wonder he won’t talk to them.
http://www.kontrol.ca kontrol

Maybe Harper isn’t taking any more questions because he has run out of answers. If Harper doesn’t significantly increase his seat count, there will definitely be pressure to step down.
RyanD

john g- “Personally I could care less if Harper ever talks to anyone in the PPG again.”

Of course you couldn’t because you’ve already made up you mind.
Say What?

Kady said: “He’s not answering those questions either, Jim – at least, not for the next two days. So if anything that relates to the issues that matter to you happens to come up between now and election day, you won’t be getting an answer.”

Of course Mr. Harper can still give answers to Canadians in these last days.

Let us hear what he has to say, as he talks to the people who come out to hear him…unfiltered, and untouched by the media.

Especially that media, who really want a story, and often any story will do, than helping voters with details of what these guys plan to do to keep heads above water.
http://thegrumpyvoter.blogspot.com grumpy voter

Harper has a nasty habit of publicly musing late in the game. More often than not, it has come back to bite him on the ass. In this case, two thoughts come to mind:

1) He mused about his future in 2004 and at that time, I was mildly surprised he decided to have another go at it. I think he’s being pragmatic here, because the economy *is* going to tank very very badly and whoever *is* the government for two, three or even five years for that matter is going to get blamed for it. For this reason, you can count on another Liberal government in two, three or even five years time. If you had a cabinet made up of the best economic minds in the world, this nasty business of a big ass recession is going to happen whether we like it or not. The only good thing to come out of it is that we won’t have to hear “all climate change apocalypse all the time” whenever we flip on the TV or open the news paper.

2) Stephen Harper, for all his faults, is a devoted father and his kids are growing up. I suspect the prospect of doing something else and watching his kids grow up is infinitely more rewarding than incrementally decentralizing our central government and Senate reform.

Very simply folks, I think he could easily live without being Prime Minister of Canada. This is a near impossible country to govern where regional interests define our national character and our national character is non-existent. “I’m a maritimer”, “I’m an Albertan”, I’m from the east”, “I’m from the west” – that’s how Canadians define themselves first. Because of this, we’re going to get a government on Wednesday morning that strongly resembles how utterly disunited our country truly is.
Sam

Love: This Liberal group hug of a blog doesn’t understand that the CPC loves Harper. He’s not going anywhere.

Chess: You say you won’t take questions, then you take questions, and the press loves you for it.

Bias: Macleans should hire a conservative blogger to even things out in its political coverage.
http://www.macleans.ca Kady O’Malley

Sam, I think that’s true – in fact, that’s exactly what I posted in the comments. I’m not convinced that the party *would* want to replace him, even if he lost – either on Tuesday, or as a result of a post-Throne Speech confidence motion, if a coalition develops amongst two (or more, I guess) opposition parties. But would *he* want to stay under those circumstances?
http://www.macleans.ca Kady O’Malley

Say What?: You realize his events aren’t public, right? The audience at these rallies is made up of people who already support him, and his party, and may not have the same questions as those who are still undecided. But don’t you think those voters would like to know what he plans to do if he doesn’t win on Tuesday? Even if it is unlikely to change how they vote? Because if it doesn’t come up during his speech, and he doesn’t take questions from the tour press, they won’t.
http://thegrumpyvoter.blogspot.com grumpy voter

>>Bias: Macleans should hire a conservative blogger to even things out in its political coverage.<<

I know he doesn’t have a blog, but there’s this dude named Mark Steyn who is a regular columnist for Macleans… you know, being that they are so pro-liberal and all, I was as shocked as you that Macleans just fought a human rights case because Liberals are totally pro-human rights commission.
Andrew

I’m ‘liberal’, and I think they’re dangerous, as structured.
RyanD

Oh please! Don’t even get me started on the F’n “Human Rights” Commission! I consider myself progressive (in most respects) but that is one thing I wish they would either scrap or totally reconstitute.
Say What?

Kady, you are into pretend issues today, and Mr. Harper is not.

If there are people who do not yet know who they are going to vote for, they have not been paying attention.

Are you saying the media is not at these rallies at all?

Or that they are not given the opportunity they want to ask their questions, which does not always equate to what the public wants to learn?

Cause for darned sure, if they are paying a thousand smackers per day, they will be there, and can provide his words, *as spoken*.

Isn’t that what objective reporting is about?
Dave

But we all have to admit, it was incredibly generous of Leader Harper to provide us that five-day window when he both had a platform and was willing to entertain questions from the press.

It was almost enough to remind us of those good old days when we had a democracy with a functioning independent media.
Mulletaur

If journalists and their employers are not getting the access to Harper they paid for on tour, they always have the option of simply not reporting on his tour rather than serving as an uncritical channel for transmitting the Conservative message. Perhaps the journalists could start asking critical questions and doing some investigative reporting instead. Just a thought …
Steph C

Has passive aggression become a prerequisite for PM or Party Leader? Sheesh!
AM

(1) Harper isn’t taking any more questions because he’s afraid that some nasty reporter is going to ask him, if you were the Liberal leader today, what would you have done during the election that Mr. Dion has not, and, no, I won’t specify when you became Liberal leader.

(2) Harper’s cleverness could persuade progressive conservatives to just stay home on Tuesday.
Cool Blue

Dion took the bait.

He announced that even if he loses he election and loses seats, he’s not stepping down as leader.

How motivated do you think the Iggy and Rae factions are to help Get Out The Vote for Dion now?
bob steward

Cady

I want to know if Mr. Harper was a car, what kinda car would he be??

Come on that’s the question we ALL want to know!!

keep up the great…er…well…just keep it up
Soccermom

Dion has plans for a coalition gov’t anyway, if he loses to a minority Harper gov’t. Harper gets a majority, the door will be slamming Dion in the ass on his way out.

Harper’s too good of a PM for this whining, entitlement-driven country anyway.
Bruce

Wednesday morning Dion will be back in the land of fairies, lollipops and unicorns, staring out the window with a blank look on his face while mumbling something that only he can hear.
Ti-Guy

Who was it again who wrote that the Right appeals to jerks?
JK

CoolBlue you nailed.

Dion made my day, Dion is staying on. If Harper wins just sit back grab some popcorn and enjoy the LPC tear themselves apart for a year or 2. Plus the LPC have no money.

And like Wells says, the libs have some major internal problems.

As to Harper not talkiing to the “franklins” in the last couple days, I could care less.