The good people who dress up the locales for Stephen Harper's announcements, events and rallies try to think of everything.

The goal is to ensure that nothing distracting, awkward or off-message appears in the background in any of the rooms and divert attention from what the Prime Minister is saying. It's what any smart advance team should do.

And of course that includes directing the view for photographers.

That's why when you see side-angle photos of the Prime Minister at one of these things, there's usually a giant Canadian flag framing him on the far wall or a big Conservative sign. They've been specifically placed there by the advance team which in turn ropes off an area for photographers on the near side to ensure that it all lines up on-brand for them.

But sometimes Harper's people go further — to the point of covering those unsightly red doorway "exit" signs. Perhaps it's to ensure that sneaky photographers would not be able to snap Harper's image anywhere near the word "exit."

Whatever the reason, at an event in Vancouver this week the signs were carefully covered over by Conservatives.

How is this known? The excellent Canadian Press photographer Jonathan Hayward snapped a shot of the cover-up in action — a worker plastering the sign with masking tape.

It's a good thing there wasn't a fire.

Hayward, by the way, took another amusing shot a couple of days ago during a rally in Dryden, Ont. It was an extreme close-up a woman's foot in open-toed sandals. The woman's toes were painted bright blue, with a white "C" for Conservative on the big one. It's what all trendy Tories are sporting!

— Paul Hunter