Sorry seems to be the hardest word

This morning, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper apologized for screening and removing anybody who was "there to hear our message" from his campaign events.

(Some have started to parse his statement, and point out that his choice of words could mean that he isn't sorry for removing people with other motives at Conservative events, but I'm going to leave that debate to others.)

The evolution of this apology is interesting.

When the story first broke in the London Free Press, the Conservatives apologized through the media to the student involved. Well, sort of. 

By Tuesday afternoon, people across Canada were hearing about Awish Aslam's experience. When the CBC interviewed the UWO student, she said she hadn't yet heard from any Conservatives directly by way of an apology. She was charitable enough to joke about it, saying that since they knew she was on Facebook it should be easy enough for them to find her to get a message through.

Nonetheless, that afternoon Stephen Harper's spokesman Dimitri Soudas said they had apologized, in this scrum with the press travelling with the Conservative campaign. I note that Soudas doesn't say that they had apologized through the media/indirectly, but seems to be spinning in such a way as to leave the impression that they had given a proper apology to her directly:

Reporters weren't satisfied, and when Harper took questions on Wednesday morning one reporter gave Harper a natural opportunity to say he was sorry if he was so inclined. He tried to brush it off, and make light of the situation.

 

Also on Wednesday morning, Aslam finally heard from Soudas via Facebook.  Here's the wording of his apology, which she shared with CBC News:

Awish, my name is Dimitri. I wanted to send you a short message of apology for the rally the other night. I'd like to offer to introduce you to Prime Minister Harper next time we are in London.

Which brings us to today's apology by Harper himself. Again, a reporter gave him the opening. This time he decided to take it.

The strategy of apologizing quickly so one can move on from a mistake is tried and true in politics. Only the Harper campaign knows why it took three days to execute it in full.