Embassy Magazine reporter Michelle Collins interviewed me earlier this week about my impressions of Prime Minister Stephen Harper when I have travelled overseas with him.

She interviewed others for this article as well -- though none of the others quoted in the piece have, so far as I know, ever travelled overseas with a prime minister. The result of her work is in an article titled "G8 Attack Reflects Poorly on Canada: Experts"

I show up in the following bit:

Canwest News reporter David Akin said that when he follows the prime minister to such summits, the Canadian leader is so poorly known that photographers are constantly asking who Mr. Harper is.

Mr. Akin recalled that at the prime minister's first G8 Summit in St. Petersburg in 2006, Mr. Harper avoided the press for three entire days, even as every other G8 leader loudly trumpeted their messages to the international press gathered on site.

"He was so uncomfortable he was invisible, he physically looked smaller in that '06 summit...he seemed really out of his element," Mr. Akin said. "When you're travelling with him, there's never enough information about his activities, about who he's speaking to. The read-outs that we get from the PMO communications when he meets with other leaders are frustratingly bland and vague."

While these quotations attributed to me are correct, they represent an incomplete response give to the questions Collins put to me. Indeed, since the headline is "G8 Attack Reflects Poorly on Canada: Experts" you might get the impression that I am one of the "experts" who holds that view. For the record, I am neither an expert nor do I hold that view. In fact, when asked specifically by Collins if that's what I believed, I replied that the attack did not reflect in any way on Canada simply because most other delegations don't pay much attention to Canada. Canadians think it makes a difference to our world standing but I have seen no evidence when I'm at these summits that it makes a difference one way or the other.
Some other clarifications and amplifications:
  • I told Collins that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is rarely recognized by the foreign press but I also said that that goes for any Canadian prime minister. It was the same for former prime ministers Paul Martin and Jean Chretien not just for Harper.
  • Prime Minister Stephen Harper did indeed look out of his element the 2006 G8 summit. It was the first major international meeting for both Harper and his advisors. As I told Collins, many of those same advisors who now travel with the prime minister travelled have been travelling with him since 2008. And I told Collins that while he did seem "smaller" in 2006, that is no longer the case. While many have appropriate questions as to the objectives he wants to accomplish while overseas and the means he uses to accomplish those objectives, there is no denying that he is much more sure-footed overseas and has, in some cases, been able to bring other leaders around to his view. (The most notable example of that for me was the 2007 Commonwealth Summit in Uganda when Harper and Canada were seen as blocking movement on the climate change file and yet, the final communique reflected Canada's rather different view of this file.). The key point, though is: While he seemed "out of his element" in 2006, I no longer have that impression and told Collins as much.
  • I and many of my press gallery colleagues continue to complain about the amount and quality of information given to us while we're travelling with the prime minister. It is improving but remains a constant complaint.

, ,