By Don Newman

March 20, 2025

With an election call expected this Sunday, the Conservatives have devised a way they hope will increase Pierre Poilievre’s chances against Mark Carney. It is a strategy Conservatives have tried before, and now they are trying it again.

Two months ago, Poilievre had every reason to be brashly confident that he would easily win the next election. But now, there is a new leader of the Liberal Party and a new issue over which this election will be fought.

Instead of the combative Conservative leader who was going to fight the election against Justin Trudeau and the vastly unpopular consumer carbon tax, Poilievre will have to fight an election against Mark Carney on the issue of who best can represent Canada against mercurial, combative United States President Donald Trump. Trump is levelling punishing tariffs on just about all Canadian exports south of the border in an effort some think is a scheme to destroy Canada’s economy and make our country easier to absorb into the U.S.

What’s the new Conservative strategy? For the first time in living memory, Poilievre and the Conservatives are going to run this election without a travelling press corps of seasoned political reporters accompanying the leader. Instead, they will allow reporters at all their events across the country and provide a party-edited video feed of what Poilievre is doing every day. But travelling with the leader by plane and bus and observing him firsthand as he reaches out to Canadians are off the agenda.

In a letter to media groups that will be covering the election, Poilievre Campaign Director Jenni Byrne said the new policy reflects the realities of the media and will provide all the access reporters require. But nobody is being fooled. The new arrangements will be used to limit access, provide favourable images of Poilievre and none that are unfavourable, which the Conservatives hope will boost his chances against the popular Carney.

Both the Liberals and the New Democrats are keeping with the travelling tradition; charging news organizations for each seat on the plane or bus, but at the same time providing access to the leader every day.

Two months ago, Poilievre had every reason to be brashly confident that he would easily win the next election. But now, there is a new leader of the Liberal Party and a new issue over which this election will be fought.

This new Conservative coverage policy for the election foreshadows what’s likely to come if the Conservatives win, and harkens back to what happened the last time the party was in power. During Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s time in office between 2006 and 2015, he tried successfully to limit access, reduce availability and make life more difficult for the journalists covering him.

The Parliamentary Press Gallery maintains a theatre with positions for television cameras, simultaneous translation and a chairman from the press gallery executive to chair the press conferences and select the questioners for whomever is holding the conference.

The theatre was opened in 1967, when Lester Pearson was Prime Minister. It was good enough for Pearson and all of his successors; Pierre Trudeau, Joe Clark, John Turner, Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell, Jean Chretien and Paul Martin to use for Press Conferences. But not Stephen Harper, who held press conferences  on Parliament Hill, where he could override the Gallery and choose who questioned him. That worked, but not very well. Finally, Harper capitulated and started using the theatre.

But Harper started a trend that Poilievre has followed. His first few years as Prime Minister, Harper did year-end interviews in both English and French with the major television networks. The longer he was in office, the tougher the questions became. Finally, he began dodging the networks and giving interviews to regional and specialized broadcasters.

Poilievre has followed that same game plan and he is not yet prime minister. He has not appeared recently on network television and, instead, this New Year, gave an interview to controversial right-wing author and commentator Jordan Peterson. Peterson is hardly an impartial journalist. But a wide swath of the Conservative Party believes there are no impartial journalists. Perhaps because they have great difficulty seeing more than their one side of a question, they don’t believe anyone else can either. Their approach is “If you are not promoting us, you must be against us.” That often sets up strained relations with professional, objective journalists.

Now, the new Conservative campaign approach will be closely observed. For some, it is confirmation that Poilievre is essentially a shallow attack dog who can’t handle close, daily scrutiny. Others will agree with the approach, arguing it will keep journalists who are not impressed with him out of the way and a distraction. Either way, it will limit public information about the Conservatives and their campaign. Time will tell whether that helps or hurts them.

Policy Columnist Don Newman is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a lifetime member and a past president of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery.