The reviews are in

The Star-Phoenix editorial board:

Oh, how eager was newly minted Prime Minister Stephen Harper to do the public's business in a transparent and accountable way, as he rode to power in 2006 on a wave of promises to govern differently from the entitlement-minded Liberals who'd worn out their welcome with Canadians over the adscam fiasco.

But that was then and this is now, with Mr. Harper's second-term Conservative government going even further than its predecessors to erect an opaque barrier between itself and citizens employing what an alarmed Information Commissioner Robert Marleau described in January as a "communications stranglehold" on the bureaucracy.
...
It's hard to believe that the mealy-mouthed utterance, "administrative alternatives, such as enhanced guidance and training that can be equally effective," actually came from a cabinet minister of a Conservative administration that took power on a promise to overhaul the system.

Four years in power is all it's taken for political sclerosis to set in.