Harper the Autocrat.

It would appear that Stephen Harper is trying to govern Canada the way Ralph Klein is governing Alberta. It appears that Harper will no longer give press conferences to the national media. It would appear that the national media took umbrage to Harper and his handlers hand picking journalists to ask questions.

Harper is quoted as saying that he doesn't like the press acting like the opposition. Sorry Stephen, not all the press is like the Calgary Herald and a cheering squad for the Conservative party. Sometimes the press will actually try to hold you accountable.

So Harper is going to become Achilles and go sulk in his tent and not talk to the press until it can play his game. I think that Harper is going to be sorely disappointed. The national media is far more savvy than the Herald is and won't play. This means that the message that the Tories want to reach the voters of Ontario and Quebec won't. Not a good thing for a minority government trying to gain more seats. For now Harper has said he will only speak to local media. I'm sure this will happen till they start asking hard questions and soon it will be Harper only speaking to the Calgary media.

This tactic has been seen before. It's what Ralph Klein uses to keep the Alberta media in line. Unfortunately, it's only one step away from government censorship of the media. Both Ralph and Stephen forget that in a democracy, people may actually hold contrary opinions to yours and that with freedom of speech and a free press, people won't always say what the government wants them to say. All it shows is that Harper wants to turn Canada into a neo-con dictatorship.