Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has agreed to a radically different way to answer questions on television. Traditionally, Canadian prime ministers have been periodically interviewed by news anchors, usually one-on-one, sitting down in an office.
Making good on promise of openness
Instead, the public broadcaster, CBC, has proposed Trudeau meet with 10 Canadians, and that he review highlights of those exchanges with its top news anchor, Peter Mansbridge.
When he ran for office, Trudeau and his candidates promised an era of openness and accessibility. This was in sharp contrast with the incumbent prime minister, Stephen Harper, who was notorious for tightly controlling the message, and for rarely allowing his members of Parliament or civil servants to speak with the media.
Meeting with 10 concerned Canadians
Now, CBC has selected 10 Canadians without any input from the prime minister’s office. Each one has what CBC calls a particular concern about a specific issue. Each one will meet alone with the prime minister for 10 minutes and the session will be taped by two camera operators.
Viewers will then watch Trudeau and Mansbridge review highlights of the meetings and further discuss the issues that they reveal. That will be done before an audience inside the Parliament buildings and will be broadcast on Sunday, January 31, 2016.
The uncut meetings with 10 citizens will be posted on the internet.
Other evidence of the new government’s openness includes frequent scrums, where cabinet ministers make themselves available to reporters to answer questions.
RCI with CBC
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