This summer, I (left) and a bunch of my colleagues from the Parliamentary Press Gallery got to spend a few days in beautiful Baddeck, NS. We were there to report on the summer-ending Liberal caucus retreat. It was an important meeting for the Liberals as Michael Ignatieff had just wrapped up a cross-country tour and Liberals were feeling that they had a little wind in their sails.
After they finished their meetings and we filed our reports on the day's political machinations, politicians, staffers, and journalists looked around for some food and refreshment. Baddeck being a small place, the journos and the politicos inevitably ended up in the same pub. A few glasses of wine later, with a decent band in the joint, and everyone is up and dancing. Some journos — not me — wanted to take pictures of insert-your-Liberal-MP's-name-here dancing and enjoying themselves. The journos' motivation may have been innocent enough — something for the scrapbook — but I watched and felt saddened that several Liberals immediately sat down and or left the pub when they saw the cameras out. They were worried that pictures of them enjoying themselves for a few minutes might get flashed around the Web, Facebook, Twitter or wherever and be used their political opponents or ignorant bloggers to make fun of them.
Another anecdote: I sit on the executive of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. The Gallery organizes an annual dinner that used to be an occasion for journalists and the politicians they cover to, once a year at least, put down the pens and have a little off-the-record fun at each other's expense. Then someone let the TV cameras in. Now, neither the prime minister nor the Governor General will attend (Michaelle Jean said no more after she was pilloried in the Quebec press for a very funny bit she did about Andre Boisclair at her first and only dinner ). And, increasingly, the organizers of this dinner feel like they are pulling teeth to get politicians to participate.
And now we have Stephen Harper's rock concert. For the last several weekends, the prime minister has been having some buddies over to his house to play a little music in the basement. They managed to put together a decent little five-song set and thought it would be fun to play them in public. So they set up their gear on the stage at the annual Conservative caucus party, invited the media and their cameras in, and everyone had a lot of fun rocking the joint.
But of course, Liberal hyper-partisans can't let a Conservative prime minister have a little fun so they're throwing mud at the guy this morning and any journalist who reported on the affair. One “senior Liberal” told The Globe and Mail that they were upset Harper's rock concert wasn't bilingual. You read that correctly.
Conservative hyper-partisans aren't any better. They laughed and ridiculed the Liberal leader when Iggy got jiggy with it at MuchMusic earlier this summer. And those Conservative hyper-partisans are the reason some Liberal MPs in Baddeck felt they couldn't enjoy a couple of dances if anyone pulled out a camera.
One of my Facebook “friends”, upon seeing my reporting on Harper's rock concert posted:
“Mr. Akin seems to be way too infatuated with the Glorious Leader. I thought Mr. Soudas was paid to be his Propaganda Minister!”
Sigh. Typical.
To which I say: I'm infatuated with any politician — no matter the stripe — who remembers to act like a human being every now and again. But I understand why they don't do that in public too much: They're likely to get crucified for doing nothing more than having a little fun at the end of the day.
Well Sir, if these politicians would spend more time working for the benefit of Canadians instead of themselves and corporate interests, this would probably be a moot point.
This I also find interesting: “I'm infatuated with any politician — no matter the stripe — who remembers to act like a human being every now and again.” Oh the irony…
Yer kinda provin' my point here, you know ..
Great article! I was pretty sad to see the slag about the english only set list. Politicians do need to be examined critically when the situation warrants but for goodness sake they aren't robots. Mud throwing has the opposite effect on me as I usually end up more critical of the mud thrower. Things like Danny Williams appearing on This Hour has 22 Minutes and Harper appearing on Corner Gas make me love Canadian politicians. Everyone needs to have a bit of fun now and again.
…thought it would be fun to play them in public.
Is that a new euphemism for staged photo op.
You will not win Akin. The partisans on both sides will ensure they get their pound of flesh. The fact that Harper is showing some humaness goes against the media and the Liberals story line that he is ruthless, cold and calculating and would sell his mother to destroy the Liberal party. The fact that he may have some softer qualities will drive them to distraction.
Please David. Go back and read your tweets from last night. I'm assuming you were invited as a journalist, but they read like 13 year-old Tiffany's account of the Justin Beiber concert. Very disappointing.
Well, I give King Steve credit for being able to play the piano. I been tryin' some since I been an adult. Back when I was a youngster, my Ma an' Pa didn't have any extra money for lessons or instruments. It was only the elites who could afford them things. We did have shoes, though, at least in the wintertime.
“Answer them [critics] with silence and indifference. It works better, I assure you, than anger and argument.”
Gioacchino Rossini, composer of operas.
And on the bilingual bit, as I wrote at another blog …
About the Liberals’ complaint the PM didn’t sing any French songs …
I suggest the next time the PM decides to regale us with his singing, he should sing “La complainte d’un phoque en Alaska” by Beau Dommage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ6CSOLxbeM
I’d love to hear the PM dedicate the song to the Liberals while saying “phoque” en français.
Once again, Stephen Harper reveals his true Canadian self … a leader with a conservative mind but with a liberal heart … the best of both.
excellent article. I agree with your Baddeck example and it IS sad.
The reponse of some Liberals to the PM's music-making last night is also pathetic. But if the PM and his friends only wanted to cut loose with their colleagues and have some “fun”, why the orchestrated cameras and video release to all the networks?
Is there a difference between “being human” and deliberately cultivating an image?
And yet, Canadians are showing time and time again in the polls that what's needed is a leader with charisma.
Communications offices need to tone down the care about what the hyper-partisans think. Their limited spheres of influence are on the margins, and really need to be accounted for as what they are: a sunk political cost.