Harper skips Canada in favour of American pre-summit media interviews
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will travel to the United States this weekend for another series of American media interviews, including one with the Fox News network that disparaged Canadian soldiers last week.
No government-to-government business or meetings are planned Sunday in Washington and Monday in New York, said his spokesman, and the full list of media outlets Harper will speak to is not being released.
"The prime minister will be in these cities in his capacity as the prime minister of Canada, but with the purpose of speaking with international media about Canada's position going into the G20 and NATO summits," Kory Teneycke said Friday during a briefing on Harper's pending trip to London, Germany and France.
"I don't want to give out a full list of interviews that we're doing," said Teneycke.
Harper did provide Radio-Canada with a rare interview on Thursday evening and is scheduled to give another Sunday to CTV.
Canadian correspondents were told not to bother trying to track Harper in Washington or New York. "You will likely be disappointed," said Teneycke.
The prime minister's latest round of media shopping comes just a month after he was last in New York.
It's part of a strategy to limit Harper's Canadian interrogations - where the questions tilt toward the specifics of Canada's troubled domestic economy - in favour of foreign media who can be expected to compare this country favourably to its international partners.
The only detail provided by the Prime Minister's Office was that Harper will be doing a live interview on Fox News on Sunday morning and a CNN interview on Monday.
The Fox interview comes less than a week after some Conservatives called on Canadians to boycott the network because of an offensive late-night talk show that disparaged Canadian military efforts in Afghanistan.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay called the Fox program "disgusting" and "crass" and a Conservative strategist said he hoped Canadians would cancel their Fox News subscriptions and that Canadian advertisers would stop doing business with the network.
Teneycke downplayed the controversy Friday, noting Harper's interview is with a prominent Fox News personality.
"There is a big difference between an interview with Chris Wallace - one of the most respected journalists in the Washington gallery who is a very substantive and tough interviewer - and a comedian, so-called comedian, with a show at 3 a.m. on a cable channel. It's different."
Harper will return to Ottawa on Monday and depart early Tuesday for London.
Canadian journalists, who are paying $4,200 each to travel with the prime minister to the G20 and NATO summits in Europe next week, were told Friday they would be limited to two media availabilities with Harper over five days - each one comprised of two questions in French and two in English.
The limitation on the number of questions is a marked departure from Harper's recent past practice, when all Canadian media travelling with the prime minister were invited to ask questions.
The prime minister's peekaboo strategy with Canadian reporters stands in stark contrast to that of President Barack Obama, who is raising eyebrows in Washington for what some consider over-exposure.
American media watchers, however, have also noted that Obama has adopted a more controlling stance to reporters' questions, establishing his own list of media outlets in advance of his news conferences.
Teneycke defended the decision to have the prime minister take his message outside Canadian borders.
"It is in Canada's interest - especially at a time of global recession where we have things like trade protections as a fundamental risk to our economic prosperity and our economic recovery - to not just simply talk to other Canadians," said Harper's spokesman.
"We need to engage the world, which means talking to foreign media as well as domestic media."
It will be Harper's second interview with both Fox and CNN in a month. He has not granted an interview to The Canadian Press, Canada's national news service, since December 2007.