For a moment, it felt like I'd stepped into Bizarro World, that land in DC Comics where everything is the exact opposite of reality.

James Cudmore

It was after question period, and I had been waiting outside the government lobby, hoping a certain minister would emerge. Out stepped a PMO communications staffer, who, with a big smile, asked if there was anyone she could track down for me.

I proffered the certain minister's name, and off she went to find him. A few minutes later she re-emerged. The minister was in a meeting, but she'd be happy to call his communications director and see if she could work something out.

And then she did.

Right there, on the spot — even agreeing to be put on hold for a few minutes while the minister's switchboard tracked down the communications director.

It was, to be clear, a near perfect effort at media relations and the exact opposite of what parliamentary reporters have learned to expect over the course of the past couple of years.

Then to make things even more bizarre, Tory communications director Kory Teneycke was right there in the House of Commons foyer, handing out a news story (the government will try to cut spending by politicians and senior
politicians by tens of millions of dollars) to just about any reporter he could find.

Compare that to the (probably apocryphal) story of former communications director Sandra Buckler's e-mail response to a reporter's query with, "Off the record, no comment."

James Cudmore