The prorogation is a hot topic in political circles, no doubt about it.
An EKOS poll out this week suggests the Tories have lost some voter support because of prorogation. A Facebook group set up to demonstrate against the prorogation now has more than 100,000 members. And, when I and my colleague John Ivison made a calculated decision not to ask the Prime Minister about prorogation in a 13 minute and 39 second interview less than 24 hours after CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge grilled the PM about the same topic, the blogosphere enthusiastically punted me around the block for my failure to bring up prorogation (please read the interview: we talked about senate appointments, climate change, Afghanistan, election speculation, the budget and Harper's future in our 13 minutes). Heck, even my dad chimed in on my Facebook page that I ought to have asked about the prorogation.
Tonight, though, after reading all that criticism, I am slightly heartened by reading the transcript of the Prime Minister facing several reporters in New Brunswick Friday afternoon who, as it turned out, did exactly what I and John did and chose to ask, by and large, about something other than prorogation.
The questions came from CBC, Radio-Canada, The Globe and Mail, the Saint John Telegraph-Journal and others. Here they are, in the order they were asked:
- Will Canada allow LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) tankers through Head Harbour Passage and Passamaquoddy Bay?
- There's a vacant position in the senate for New Brunswick. I'm wondering if you intend to appoint someone to the senate and if it's possible to have a name today?
- Prime minister – a question with respect to the meeting in Saint John a little later on. You stated in Montreal yesterday that nothing had changed in the federal government's action plan and why, therefore, have a pre-budgetary consultation when economists have stated that the recession is just about over?
- Mr. Harper, in response to today's numbers showing jobs are down, mr. Ignatieff has said there's a jobs crisis in canada. That's why he's holding hearings on the matter starting this month. Is there a jobs crisis? And are you missing an opportunity to deal with this because the House is prorogued?
- I'd like to know how you respond to growing public opinion against your decision to prorogue Parliament.
- On the LNG Issue, will the government consider passing a regulation to simply ban tankers from Head Harbour Passage?
So Harper got one question among six which was definitely about prorogation. It came from a CTV reporter. That's notable because while print outlets could all use and quote the Mansbridge interview where Harper talked about proroguing, CTV, as a competing network cannot use that footage of Harper and Mansbridge and, as a result, does not have Harper on tape talking about proroguing while their competitors do. CTV, then, is asking this question because it's the last major news organization to be able to report on Harper's views on proroguing. (My organization did so immediately after the Mansbridge interview.)
Here's Harper's answer to the CTV question, number 5 above (my emphasis):
Harper: It's interesting to see a week after we set the date for Parliament to return that the Opposition now says they're going to be really mad about this when they get back from vacation on January the 25th. The fact of the matter is this… Is, as i've said before, the government is going to take advantage of this time, we need the time to look carefully at our agenda, to continue to deliver the economic measures that are being delivered here and elsewhere across the country as part of the economic action plan. We also need time to re-examine our agenda, to prepare for the next year in parliament, and prepare for a very different economy going forward, one that, on the one hand i think we're going to start to see a recovery. We've seen stabilization in the last few months. We're going to see a recovery. We need to get our policies in place to better build that recovery and to build the jobs of the future, but, at the same time, to do so in an environment where governments across this country will have to begin to reduce our deficits. We've run very large deficits to cope with the extraordinary situation we've found ourselves in the past year. I think those policies have been fairly effective. I think they need to continue for a while, but we do need to think about exit strategies so that we obviously move back towards balance but continue to build the jobs of the future in this country.
The only new bit here is that he chides opposition leaders a bit.
This was the first chance, incidentally, a representative of The Globe and Mail has had to ask the prime minister about prorogation, a topic which alarmed that paper enough that it ran an editorial on the front page of its newspaper, a rare and noteworthy step (“Democracy Diminished, Accountability Avoided“, Dec. 31, 2009, A1). And yet, with its first chance to ask the PM about that decision, its reporter chose to ask a question about a tepid employment report for December. That's a perfectly defensible choice – and it's pretty clear that the Globe's editors in Toronto wanted that question put to Harper for what I'll bet is their line (lead) story Saturday — but there is at least one Globe reporter who believes journalists should be concentrating our questions on prorogation or torture. CBC, Radio-Canada, Canwest and others apparently disagree. (Though we'd all agree it's still a very important topic: I can't stress that enough, I fear).
All of which is to say: Neither Canwest News Service, National Post, The Globe and Mail, or any other news organizations thinks the decision to prorogue is not newsworthy. It is. (And Canwest for one, and I'm sure others, will be writing about it soon and often) And we would very much like to ask the PM more questions about it but, if you read what he said to Mansbridge, what he said to Ivison and me and, what he said to CTV in New Brunswick, you'll see that he's going to say pretty much the same thing — “as I've said before“.
I keep writing about this incidentally because I take this responsibility — asking questions of the powerful knowing I'm a proxy for my readers and the less powerful — very seriously. I very much want to ask the right question whether I'm asking Harper, Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton or anyone else. I want the answer to that question to provide some new insight or some new thinking about an issue. Sadly, given the constraints journalists have to work with when it comes to questioning this or any prime minister, it's my judgement that we're just not going to get new insights or new thinking by asking Harper about prorogation — and we're all better off asking Harper about something else — and continue to ask others about prorogation.
At least they asked. They didn't give up because they couldn't think of something original to say. Funny, no lob-ball question about what the PM will do after he retires. I guess you used that one up.
Interesting post, David. For the record, I think you and John made the right decision on your questions. I believe the Mansbridge interview had been broadcast either two days before, or the day before. So the prime minister's views on prorogation were already out there. Even within the prorogation domain, what's really the story? Harper's reaction to his own decision–which presumably he made because he thought it was the right one–or the public reaction? I would be inclined to say the latter. I don't fault you for trying to move the ball along on other fronts (e.g. Afghanistan, climate change etc.).
I see see three questions about proroguing?!?!?
I'm still waiting for a pollster to ask the public if they actually have a clue what prorogation is before they explain it to them and then ask them their opinion of it. I listened to a radio show where they went to the streets and asked people if they knew what it was/what it meant, and only a fraction of people did. As such, the question begs to be asked… How can a person be 'annoyed' about something that they don't understand? By explaining prorogation to the public during a poll, the pollster assumes that all of the public will have the same understanding. This is a fatal flaw in the poll, and it makes it meaningless.
The next time you talk with a pollster, why not ask them why they didn't ask people if they knew what prorogation/prorogue meant to begin with. I am shocked that they could make such a fundemantal mistake with their polls, although I doubt they will admit it.
Not out of the doghouse as yet, Akin
Every Harper non-answer should provoke a more pointed (and eventually somewhat hostile) question.
With Parliament shut down, you guys are the last resort to expose this guy and his blue-sweater-just-an-admin-matter manipulation of public opinion.
As Harper gives non-answers both inside an outside the HoC to most topics, you guys should be hounding him until he shows the ugly side or completely retreats into the bunker.
We are counting on ya Akin.
Doesn't all this suggest state control of the news?
Great insights as usual David. Since you are asking for me, perhaps, if you have an opportunity to ask a follow up questions, you could ask they the government needs to take a break from the House of Commons for such a long time in order to plan for the future.
It seems like the government has been able in the past to prepare budgets, speeches from the thrones and lots of other projects while still participating in the work of the House of Commons
I am hoping a journo will ask Michael Ignatieff the following question:
“You have denounced the Prime Ministers decision to end the session and prorogue Parliament in harsh terms. Does this mean, as Prime Minister in the future, that you promise to never prorogue Parliament, given your stated view that to do so is an arrogant affront to democracy”?
“enthusiastically punted me around the block”
Hardly. We barely kicked you out to the curb. 😉
I appreciate the insights into the publishing world and some of the nuances. I wonder if the reporters might have assumed that prorogation would be asked by someone else and decided to ask something else so's not to waste their one question since it would be asked anyway.
CBC has a feature going:
Your Question Period: What should CBC News ask our politicians? – Your View http://bit.ly/4mM0vC
Far and away, respondents to the CBC poll want answers in the Afghan detainee torture issue. 65% We DO care, it seems. A direct question re prorogation is a distant second at 20%.
This suggests that Canadians see the prorogation as a sleazy dodge of legitimate questions. Prorogation is annoying and insulting but it's a symptom — or maybe the last straw. The real issue is the failure to come clean on who knew what and when in the torture file.
If Harper is willing to take the flack he's taking over prorogation, the information the Afghanistan Cmte is seeking must be extraordinarily damaging.
JB
Prorogation became a “national” issue because it was being pushed by the media only. Neither Igntieff nor Layton deemed it important enough as a national crisis of democracy to interrupt their holiday vacations to either comment on it or rush back to endangered Canada to the rescue. In fact nobody in the media even attempted to find Iggy or Jacko to confront them with the issue!!! Wonder why not ..??!!!
No, it became an issue because a grassroots movement of over 130 thousand Canadians have joined a FB group in less than a week with no sign of that momentum fading. The media has picked up on the outrage and Harper is trying to keep it quiet. However, he cannot shutdown the media like he did to parliament, and if the media doesn't do their best to balance his power monopoly then we no longer live in a just nation.
I wouldn't fault you either David for not asking the same questions. But I would like to know why Harper feels it necessary to shut down Parliament to make “time” to work on his agenda–and I'd like to see someone challenge him on that. Far as I know governments have always calibrated their agendas and formulated federal budgets while Parliament is sitting. Why can't his?
— Simon Doyle
But Ignatieff and Layton said and did nothing after PM Harper prorogued Parliament … in fact nobody in the media bothered to find them in the south of France and Belize to get their opinion and to “balance his(PM Harper) power monopoly” .. and to come back immediately because “we no longer live in a just nation”. In effect, Ignatieff and Layton abandoned Canada during their sunny vacations, leaving it up to the media and outraged Canadians to defend our democracy. Perhaps Ignatieff and Layton didn't think all that much about “prorogation” and didn't want anything to do with frigid, turgid Canada while lounging on beaches and getting tan lines .. ya think ?!!!