Back when Paul Martin was Prime Minister, I subscribed to an e-mail feed of media releases from the PMO. It wasn't the primary feed sent to media outlets, but every day or so, sometimes more often, I'd get a message from the PMO about a speech the PM had made, or the announcement of a new federal program or grant. They're not the sort of things people suffering from e-mail overkill want, but for a politicized retiree they held a level of interest and provided talking points - the intended purpose - for encounters with friends and colleagues.
No surprise, when the Harperites moved in to the Langevin Block, these missives stopped abruptly. I assumed Martin's team hit the delete button on the mailing list as it was on the way out the door, or at least sent it to the National Archives for 25 years if required to do so by law.
Fast-forward four years and behold, the daily e-mails have resumed. Seems the PMO did retain, or has found at the bottom of some file folder on the computers in the communications office, my address. Don't assume I am being informed of significant program or policy announcements that I might not learn about from The Globe and Mail or CTV News. These are more along the lines of "PM Harper addressed a crowd in <fill in name of city> today". This morning's informs me that Harper attended a hockey game in Barrie, ON, last night, accompanied by Peter MacKay. Well that is something the CBC Morning News did not report.
With the PM insisting he is not planning for or expecting an election, what could this newfound interest in communications with the masses mean?
