Trudeau and the Press: So far, an improvement over his predecessor
David Akin - November 17th, 2015
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to reporters at the back of the air force plane that carried him from
the G20 Summit in Turkey to the APEC summit in Manila. The last time Trudeau’s predecessor did this was,
so far as I know, on his way to an APEC summit in Vietnam way back in 2006. I’ve since circumnavigated
the globe three times with Harper and done lots of other Europe-and-back trips and in all that time, he
never found this type of press interaction to be his style. (DAVID AKIN / Sun Media)
We had just refueled RCAF 01 (pictured below) in Bangalore, India and were looking at a 6-hour flight from there to Manila where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is to attend the APEC summit. Almost as soon as we were up in the air, Trudeau’s press secretary, Cameron Ahmad, came to the back of the plane where they stash the reporters travelling with the prime minister, to let us know that Trudeau would eave his off-limits VIP area up at the front of the plane to come back and take some questions on-the-record. Ahmad gave the collected travelling media — there’s about 25 media, including ENG technicians and photographers on this trip — seven questions (plus a followup). Up to us to choose who would ask and what we would ask. He left us alone and told us Trudeau would be back 90 minutes later. We huddled, figured out the things we wanted to ask about — I was keen to keep pushing him for details about how 25,000 Syrian refugees will be screened before coming into Canada and, happily, other reporters were as well — and we figured out who would put the questions to Trudeau.
True to Ahmad’s word, Trudeau, in jeans, a sports shirt and a sports jacket, came to the back of the plane 90 minutes later and took our questions.
Seven questions plus followups is a substantial improvement over the the way Trudeau’s predecessor, Stephen Harper, had done things.
First, we have always been free to put any question we want to a prime minister (Trudeau, Harper, Martin, Chretien, you name it…)
RCAF 01 — the Airbus Polaris CC-150 that carries VIPs like the prime minister to foreign destinations — on
the tarmac in Dublin, Ireland after carrying Prime Minister Stephen Harper there for the 2013 G8 summit.
(DAVID AKIN/Sun Media)
But though Harper did just what Trudeau did today — spoke to reporters at the back of the plane while travelling to his first APEC summit — Harper never developed a habit of speaking to reporters travelling with him on the plane. In fact, outside of a campaign period, the last time Harper spoke to reporters at the back of his plane, so far as I know, was on his way to the 2006 APEC Summit in Vietnam.
I’ve circumnavigated the globe at least three times in the back of the plane carrying Harper and done lots of out-and-back international trips and, while I did not go on every international trip of Harper’s, he just didn’t come to the back of the plane. We once were invited up front to his cabin but only for a photo opp of him and some of his MPs eating samosas as he winged his way to India for the second time. There were no questions.
Harper’s regular media practice at a summit — a G20, G28, and so on — was typically to do a “spray” with Canadian media on day one of the meeting. (We often got this but not always). A spray is a relatively nformal gathering of journalists where the PM makes a brief statement from the PM followed, usually, by just one question each in French and English. Then, when the summit was complete, Harper would have a more formal press conference, He’d read out a statement and take several questions. More often than not, every reporter travelling with him would get a question at this closing press conference though there were never, in my experience, any followups allowed.
So Trudeau on his first trip, comes to the back of the plane — Harper did that on his first two summit trips (a G8 in St. Petersburg and an APEC in Vietnam) — but Trudeau is allowing reporters to ask followup questions. So that’s an improvement. The politician usually has a “line” prepared on any given subject and the followup lets a reporter listen to the line-of-the-day on a given topic and then probe a little deeper to get past the canned quote.
[Press Gallery colleague Susan Delacourt had this comment at my Facebook page after reading this bit: "One wee thing, David. Harper's first two trips as PM were to Afghanistan and Mexico (for 3 amigos). Both in March 2006. He did do off-the-record interviews on the way back and forth from Afghanistan (I got a 10-minute rant about Paul Martin, which was unhelpful, news-wise) and no interviews in Mexico. He chose instead on the 3 Amigos trip to do double-enders with TV folks who weren't on the trip. Thus ended the travelling-with-PM trips for me. Not worth the hassle." I've amended the paragraph above by adding the word "summit" in the phrase above 'first two summit trips'.]
The travelling media on this Trudeau trip — I’m among them, in case you hadn’t figured that out — had been a bit grumpy about Trudeau during the G20 summit in Turkey. The Paris attacks had many leaders out on day one of the summit responding to these events but Trudeau would not make himself available. He was invisible in the midst of a major global story. And remember: Canada is a G7 country. That’s a big deal.
But Ahmad, the press secretary, told us that given the choice between setting aside time to answer questions from us or meeting another world leader for the first time, Trudeau chose to meet world leaders. All we could get from Trudeau on day one was when we interrupted a photo opp he had with the Mexican president.
As an aside: The Harper parallels here are remarkable. Harper’s first summit, a G8 in St. Petersburg in 2006, was thrown off course by the Israel-Lebanon war just as Trudeau’s first summit was thrown off course by the Paris attacks. Harper turtled, like Trudeau, and would not comment on the issue that was dominating global headlines. And, just as we interrupted a Trudeau photo opp this weekend to ask a question, I remember interrupting a Harper photo opp in St. Petersburg in 2006 to do the same, yell questions at a PM who was not doing press that day. One difference: Trudeau answered the question at the photo opp. Harper’s aide’s quickly whisked us out of the room before he gave us an answer.
[Bloomberg's bureau chief Theo Argitis was also on that 2006 St. Petersburg and he provides more context in a Facebook comment to this post: "I remember the 06 trip well. Regarding Lebanon bombing, Harper spoke at least twice on the matter before the G8. Once on the plane, when he very controversially said the bombings were `measured'. Then again at a presser with Blair a day later -- before the G8 meeting in London. Then after the G8 at a press conference in Paris. That's when he sent us all home on Air France business class and he took the plane to Cyprus to evacuate Lebanese Canadians." All true. But I'm still pretty certain that, at the summit itself, Harper would not speak to us.]
In any event, at the end of the G20 Summit in Turkey, Trudeau did make himself available for a lengthy press conference. He took 40 minutes worth of questions, in French and English, with any reporter who wanted to ask a question getting that opportunity plus a followup.
And then we got on the plane for Manila and got another 20 minutes or so and seven questions, including followups.
The followup questions alone would differentiate him in a positive way from Harper but he went further than that on his first back-of-the-plane foray, telling us all how important we were:
The last thing I want to say before I take questions is that I’m happy to be back here talking with all of you. I know that this is an important part of this process. Canadians need to understand how Canada is engaging in the world and dealing with issues that are
important to them and the work you do, as I’ve been saying from the beginning, is an integral part of that and I look forward to continuing to answer questions.
But he wasn’t done. He then pretty much apologized for not being more available at the G20. Harper would definitely not have said this:
I know that there were, ah … it was a busy summit and I wasn’t always there to answer questions but we had a minister who was pleased to engage with you more regularly and I’m always glad to engage whenever I can.
So it’s a new era — so far at least — in terms of relations between the prime minister and his press gallery. I’m encouraged. But let’s see how things are in a year from now. Or two.
Let’s review what Trudeau has done since being sworn in so far as press interactions go:
Oct 20: At the National Press Theatre. A good 30 minutes. As with all press conferences (including the four Harper did here during his nine years as PM, follow-ups are allowed and a journalist is the moderator.)
Nov 4: At Rideau Hall, after swearing-in: Trudeau takes 12-minutes worth of questions. Only a handful of reporters get to put a question to the PM but each one gets a follow-up. Many more reporters (yours truly included) are out of luck standing at the microphone as Ahmad cuts us off. PMO had no role in choosing who would ask the questions or the questions themselves.
Nov 12: At the National Press Theatre again. But this one was shorter, about 20 minutes. NPT was packed. A journalist moderated but a lot of journalists left disappointed that they did not get a question in. That’s probably our fault because, again, the PMO had no role in choosing the questioners.
Nov 13: A very brief statement with just two questions — no followups allowed — in the wake of the Paris attacks. This event was held at the Ottawa airport minutes before Trudeau got on the plane to go to the G20 Summit in Turkey.
Nov 16: A 40-minute no-reporter-left-behind press conference in Antalya, Turkey at the close of the G20 summit. Followups allowed. PMO played no role in choosing the questions or the questioner.
Nov 17: A 20-minute q-and-a on board RCAF 01 (See above)
