Unimpressive

Stephane Dion managed to embarrass himself due to his team's bumbling attempts to keep the media posted on his comings and goings. But apparently, even with the resources of the PMO at his disposal, PMS' track record for keeping the media informed continues to be even worse:

The Prime Minister's Office loves to keep the parliamentary press gallery in the loop. Reporters were given about half an hour's notice to be at Rideau Hall on Thursday for the cabinet shuffle, about half that much to get over to Parliament Hill this morning to see Stephen Harper welcome ex-Liberal Wajid Khan to the Tory fold...

(T)his notice was sent out at 4:23 p.m. this afternoon. (That's 16:23 in 24-hour-clock talk.)

Date: Jan. 05
Time: 16:00 Approx.
Participant(s): Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Location: Office of the Prime Minister, 307-S, Centre Block, Ottawa.
Subject: Prime Minister Stephen Harper will make a congratulatory phone call to head coach Craig Hartsburg on the victory of the Canadian men's junior hockey team.

In the case of the phone call, the PMO at least had the excuse that the event was a reaction to an external which couldn't be entirely planned. But even granting that difficulty, it's hard to see what value there is in sending out a "notice" only after an event has already happened.

Moreover, that argument wouldn't apply to the other events this week, where PMS had complete control over the time and place for events which were widely leaked in advance, and still seems to have made the choice to force the press to run out at the last minute. Which means that unlike Dion whose failures can be traced to a group of handlers still learning the ropes, Harper can only be taken to remain more interested in making life difficult for the media than in enabling them to carry out their job.