On limited questions

Greg has already commented on the Cons' sudden refusal to discuss anything that happens at the riding level. But let's add a couple more points to the discussion.

First, this may be the most blatant example yet of Harper trying to micromanage the media with no justification: surely it's not up to a politician to determine what questions the media is entitled to ask. And so I'd hope that the few journalists who get a chance to ask questions will either ignore the dictate, or better yet challenge it directly.

That said, the restriction does leave some obvious room for discussion.

First, there's the possibility of questions dealing with similar issues at the national level. And while I agree with Greg that a restriction on that point is probably the next step, it would seem to be well worth the media's while to get in their questions about national Con figures participating in the campaign under questionable circumstances (i.e. Doug Finley and Irving Gerstein) while they still can.

More importantly, though, if Dimitri Soudas is telling the media to ask questions about local campaigns at the local level, then anybody following those instructions should expect to get an immediate response that doesn't have to be run through the party's war room. And if and when that proves not to be the case, then there's every reason to double back to the subject with yet another example of complete dishonesty in hand.