Saturday, October 16, 2010

Muzzle Watch 2010: PMO trying to shield Julian Fantino from media?

Stephen Harper was in Vaughan on Friday to help launch former top OPP and Toronto cop Julian Fantino's campaign as the Conservative candidate in the yet to be scheduled by-election.


A few interesting things emerged from the coverage, such as the revelation that apparently Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak didn't show him the love, or perhaps he might have run provincially.

“I think this is the place that best fits my desires to make, hopefully, a significant difference on the things that threaten Canada, of which Vaughan is very much a part,” he told reporters after a Harper handler initially barred the media from speaking to him.
Could it be that the infamous Harper muzzle is back? After all, Conservative candidates have a long history of dodging the media, all candidates meetings, and other unscripted public interaction.

It appears Fantino has fought off the attempted muzzling, at least for now. He's certainly not the sort to calmly consent to keeping his mouth shut. We'll have to see if they try to slip the muzzle back on as the campaign gets underway.

I, for one, look forward to hearing what Fantino has to say on the issues of the day. Particularly on all the things he thinks threaten Canada, of which he assures us Vaughan is very much a part. Certainly, his past comments on a variety of issues have proved noteworthy.

Also, this site would seem worth watching: Conservatives Against Fantino.

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1 comment:

CanadianSense said...

After the whipping on LGR vote bringing up muzzle may not be a good idea in my humble opinion.

Message control or message consistency?

Who was the Toronto candidate that Ignatieff helped "clarify" the official position on Israel again?

It appears Ignatieff has adopted some interesting message control policies too or is it just me?