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Is there anything sillier, or more fun to watch, than the ongoing skirmish between the Parliamentary Press Gallery and the new sheriff in Ottawa?
Ever since Stephen Harper rode into town out of the dusty west, on his Blue Roan no less, he's been putting those low-down, mangy ink-stained varmints in their place.
(Was that a chorus of, "It's about time" I heard from the boys in the saloon?)
Yesterday, our new Prime Minister was set to host a press conference following a government caucus meeting.
His press secretary invited the media to sign a list if they wanted to ask a question. Reporters, who have complained constantly about the tight ways the new government has with information, declined.
They were afraid that the list was just a dance card that would allow Harper to pick his favourite partners and avoid any reporters, or subjects, that he deemed potentially negative.
No reporters signed the list and no questions were asked or answered.
Isn't democracy in action, or is it inaction, a wonderful thing to see?
What's happening here would be called the "feeling-out" period in the first quarter of a football game. You run it up the gut a few times and hit the other guy hard enough to turn his helmet sideways. Then we really start to play.
Harper has only been in charge a brief time but he's already set the tone. He's the boss and everything will run through his office.
When he doesn't get his way, as in having his nomination of Gwyn Morgan to head the public appointments nixed by a Parliamentary committee, he just throws his hands in the air and says, 'Well if you're going to be that way, I'm not going to clean up Ottawa at all.' Since the Liberals (they're the ones wearing the horns) were the real source of the problem, and the good guys are now in charge, integrity in government won't really be a problem anymore anyway.
More and more Mr. Harper reminds one in temperament and attitude of none other than Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
After Harper shakes his kids' hands to say goodnight, do you suppose he goes out in the hall and practices pirouettes?