The federal Conservative Party of Canada, like the two major parties in the U.S., will put some bloggers on the same footing as the mainstream media for their fall policy convention.
Bloggers, like the MSM, will have to pay their own freight to get to Winnipeg this fall and pay for their room and board. (Actually: I assume they'll have to pay their own way, just like the MSM. Some bloggers are very closely connected to the party and it wouldn't surprise me if some bloggers had their bills paid by the party or like-minded political organizations -- and that goes for bloggers from the right and left. The CBC journalists, for the record, who will attend will have their tabs covered by federal taxpayers; private sector MSM journalists -- possibly yours truly -- will have their bills paid largely from the sale of advertising.)

UPDATE: A Conservative party official writes in to tell me that while bloggers are free to apply to attend the convention, the Party will not be assisting them with any of their expenses.

It also looks like the party won't accredit bloggers on demand. Instead, the Conservatives say that: "The accreditation of bloggers will be based on various factors - including interest; space availability at the convention; the readership and influence of a blog; the amount of original content the blog typically generates to name a few."

[Tip o' the toque to Greg Elmer]

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