What we learned from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s #dayinthelife
On Stephen Harper's #dayinthelife: For journalists who don’t often get to ask questions of the Prime Minister, it was interesting to see how they played it. There were the obvious stories and curation about Stanley the cat and all of the homework the PM did at his desk while he ate lunch, but there was also some journalism.
On Monday—Parliament's first day back in session after the holidays—Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave the public a rare glimpse inside his routines with his #dayinthelife tweets, photos and video. For a politician who is so often accused of being secretive, it was a way for him to get his message out unfiltered by the media and humanize himself at the same time.
For journalists who don’t often get to ask questions of the Prime Minister, it was interesting to see how they played it. There were the obvious stories and curation about Stanley the cat and all of the homework the PM did at his desk while he ate lunch, but there was also some journalism.
For instance, on a photo taken from a video of Harper’s “first meeting of the day”—his daily senior staff meeting—Maclean’s Paul Wells identified each of the people sitting around the table with the Prime Minister.
[node:ad]As Wells writes:
Many of these people are barely known outside Harper’s office. Their hiring and departure is almost never announced in a news release. This isn’t the only power group in Harper’s Ottawa — cabinet ministers and their staffs have important responsibilities; top bureaucrats manage departments numbering in the thousands — but in a city where it sometimes seems that clout increases with proximity to Stephen Harper, this is literally the inner circle.
The group includes Ray Novak, the Prime Minister’s principal secretary (also his “most trusted personal adviser,” Wells says); Julie Vaux, his press secretary; Nigel Wright, his chief of staff; and about eight or nine others.
Not only does Wells identify and give background on each of these senior staff members, he presents them in a really interesting way: Simply hover your mouse over each person to see who they are. Check it out on Macleans.com.
