The Toronto Star reported yesterday that Harper “lives in a bubble”:

Rallies are off-limits for any member of the public who just shows up. Nobody gets in unless they have been pre-registered by the local riding association. Even local media are asked to sign up in advance.

Anyone wanting to attend an event featuring Harper has to have his or her name vetted by the RCMP, said a source at Conservative campaign headquarters, who would only talk on background yesterday. He said this rule applies even outside the campaign period, so no one–”even a staffer not scheduled to be there”–can show up unannounced at a Harper speech and expect to be let in.

The Harper campaign keeps a short leash on national and local media, limiting questions and access to local candidates, sometimes calling on RCMP security to block reporters from doing their jobs.

This story was well-timed for us here in Edmonton, as the local media discovered at Harper’s invitation-only rally in the city last night. “He took no questions from the crowd or media,” the Edmonton Journal wrote. Even the Tory-friendly Edmonton Sun made a mention of this, stating that “after his 30-minute speech, Harper left Edmonton without talking to the media.” In fact, the details about the event were kept such a tightly controlled secret that when one of the local bloggers at Alberta Get Rich or Die Trying called Edmonton-Centre MP Laurie Hawn’s campaign office to try and get information about the event, Hawn’s own staffers said: “we’re having a really hard time getting any details about this thing.”

Now, we could have a discussion here about whether or not we think this practice is ethical, whether we think it’s annoying, or whether we think it’s appropriate. But I’m actually more interested in discussing whether it’s strategically smart, specifically with respect to the Edmonton event. I mean, presumably Harper thinks the bubble will win him more votes than opening himself up to public contact would. And in general, he’s probably right. But in the Edmonton case in particular, he clearly made a stop here primarily to support his candidates in the two ridings that the Conservatives are most concerned about holding onto this election: Edmonton-Strathcona (which the Conservatives could lose to NDP candidate Linda Duncan) and Edmonton Centre (which the Conservatives could lose to Liberal candidate Jim Wachowich). And to accomplish that, you have to get the people in those ridings excited about Harper and their local MPs. And that’s hard to do when you don’t even let the people in to your event.

For that matter, if Harper was relying on the local media to get the word out about how important those Edmonton MPs are for his plans for the country, it didn’t work–the resulting coverage barely mentioned them. The star of the show was apparently Greenpeace, with Harper as second fiddle and his local MPs nowhere to be seen. That’s a far cry from the front-page stories after the Jack Layton rally that referred to two local NDP candidates as stars and directly quoted Layton’s words of praise about them.

I don’t know; it just seems to have been a strange strategic choice, from a man who’s supposed to be a master of strategy. And as so often with the Conservatives, I’m left wondering what I’m missing.site stats