ValueSubtracted

joined 2 years ago
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I’m a senior reporter covering the Conservative campaign this week.

We've seen unprecedented efforts at message control from the Poilievre campaign that have broken with tradition in a number of ways.

The CPC is the only party to bar media from its campaign plane and buses. The Stephen Harper, Andrew Scheer and Erin O'Toole campaigns all allowed media to travel with the leader, and charged sometimes exorbitant amounts of money for the privilege. The other parties do the same, and also charge.

Poilievre takes fewer questions than other leaders, a maximum of four per event, and insists on choosing which reporters are allowed to ask. After a week following the campaign, neither I nor my CBC colleague Tom Parry have been permitted to ask any questions.

Sometimes, CPC staffers try to get reporters to say what they plan to ask — a question a reporter is not supposed to answer. However, we have seen local media pressured into answering. Obviously, if a reporter declines, that could factor into the decision of who gets to ask questions at all.

The decision on who asks questions is always last-minute. A CPC staffer holds the microphone, ready to pull it away. No follow-up questions are permitted.

On occasion, CPC staffers have gotten physical with journalists, such as on the public wharf at Petty Harbour, N.L., where there was pushing and shoving.

Today, in Trois-Rivières, we asked to be allotted a question. Party staffers said yes, so long as it was asked by my colleague Tom Parry. We responded that I would prefer to ask it. At that point the party took away our question and gave it to another outlet.

The difficulty of trying to keep up with a campaign that has its own chartered aircraft is a logistical problem that can be mitigated to some extent. But the extreme message control makes it all but impossible to bring the same level of accountability to the Poilievre campaign that other campaigns are subject to. It also protects the campaign from having to answer tough questions and is a marked departure from previous Conservative campaigns I have covered.

 

The overall security advice remains green, "take normal security precautions/"

[–] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This will probably be the only remotely positive thing I'll have to say about the CPC during this campaign, but good for them for taking out the trash.

And yeah, there's still a lot of trash left.

[–] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Clarifications

An earlier version of this story indicated Liberal Leader Mark Carney said Canada will exempt Winnipeg's NFI Group from Canadian counter-tariffs. In fact, he said Canada may exempt NFI.

Apr 01, 2025 4:46 PM CDT

[–] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 18 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I know it was technically the lower bid, but I had high hopes for the Loblaws offer.

Anything that focuses on construction is the way to go.

Hiya Toys is pushing their Kelvin line pretty hard, though they also have the license for some SNW stuff - there's an Anson Mount Pike figure available.

[–] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think he could, and would, do exactly that, if Danielle Smith were a federal CPC candidate.

It'd be just as wrong, too.

[–] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Historically, SkyShowtime has made episodes available on a one-day delay, so July 31 is likely the date for Paramount+.

[–] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

With it being called a technical briefing, it's probably pretty benign. But...maybe it isn't?

Liberals will boot this man from the party if what he did was actually bad and deserves a punishment.(which in this case it certainly was)

He made the comments in January. He apologized on Friday. It's now Sunday, and not a word from the party...

Sure, why not? It wasn't too long ago that Eccleston doing the audio dramas would have been considered a pipe dream.

[–] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

That'd be a steep hill to climb, considering "sack Russell T Davies" was one of Eccleston's conditions to returning to DW on TV as recently as 2023...

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