It's not often journalists get to Parliament Hill and find the front doors still barred. But that's what met some reporters this morning when they rushed to get seats, and preferably seats at a table, for today's testimony by former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

Once inside through the secondary doors under the Peace Tower, journalists had a difficult choice to make. Almost all the seats to the right of where Mulroney would be sitting had already been staked out by early bird television reporters who had arrived even earlier to do live hits for breakfast morning shows.

That left seats at the front table, to the left and behind Mulroney and seats at the back of the room. The seats at the table would have been ideal, except they were in front of a row of seats reserved for Mulroney's wife Mila and their four children. That meant photographers and video cameras will be constantly training their lenses at the family and the reporters up front.

Journalists don't want to be caught in mid-yawn, licking the icing off a cookie or rolling their eyes during the testimony. Choosing the front row seat might mean four hours of writing comfortably at a table, but it also means four hours of exemplary behaviour and a poker face.