Focus on the Family gets inside access to Stephen Harper
Early in the winter of 1997, the PiePalace editorial board took a bold and unprecedented step: we decided to have one of our highly trained journalists shrunk down to the size of a red blood cell, wrapped in a thin layer of teflon, and injected (via blowdart) into Stephen Harper. Those were heady days, back in the late ’90s. We thought we’d have the Internet thing covered, especially with the whole “embedded journalist” thing, but sadly, we blew most of our venture capital on Bre-X stocks, so, after we’d had the journalist shrunk, we couldn’t afford a decent blow-dartist. Suffice to say, the dart missed, Peter Mansbridge was never the same, and our Ottawa bureau never really went anywhere.
So we’re pretty surprised to be able to bring you this journalistic coup: Darrel Reid is back in town. Darrel Reid used to be head of the Canadian arm of Focus on the Family, when it was an a zealous “anti” phase. Anti-abortion rights. Anti-gay marriage. And, if you believe the Xtra, anti-feminist. Reid has been hired on as deputy director of policy and research in the PMO. He already did a stint in Rona Ambrose’s office when she was Minister of the Environment, after his previous employer (FotF) denounced climate change as “environmental theory yet to be adequately established.”1
I’m made slightly uncomfortable by this hire because of this guy’s CV. Focus on the Family is US-based organization that openly funds its Canadian franchise (if you believe Wikipedia). I’m not sure that I want someone who was effectively a lobbyist sitting so close to our Prime Minister.
Now, just think how much more interesting this post would have been if our little blow-dart gambit had succeeded…
- From The Hill Times (back)
