This blog has been fairly critical of Stephen Harper over the past year -- for good reason. The Conservative leader has made a lot of unforced errors. But since the Grewal fiasco, there's been some positive signs. His communications office is changing; he is hitting the barbeque circuit all summer; he even attended Saint-Jean Baptiste festivities in Quebec City.
But all this doesn't seem to matter: the media will continue to find ways to beat the Tory leader over the head with a cudgel. No matter what the man does, he can't get a break.
Observe the tone of this story, even just the opening sentence. It's not pretty. Despite what Toronto elites would have us believe, it is the CP wire and not The Globe and Mail that is the most important outlet to get good coverage in. CP stories are used to fill pages by nearly every small town newspaper in Canada. These publications don't have (because they cannot afford) their own reporters outside of the local beats. So this article probably found its way into in a whole slew of Peterborough Examiner-type broadsheets this morning.
Robert Stanfield once observed that if he walked on water, the media would report that he couldn't swim. Looks like the same phenomenon is playing out once again.
UPDATE, 4:30 pm: More proof that Harper can't seem to do anything right.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:40 AM
