Listing out of control...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper had intended to talk to reporters today about his government's controversial plan to keep Canadian troops in Afghanistan through to 2009.

But communications staff in his office have been keen to control who gets to lob questions at Harper when he makes himself available.

However, the Parliament Hill press gallery has rebelled at the efforts to vet the questioners and yesterday reporters refused to sign up on a PMO list to ask a question.

Instead, reporters seeking to ask questions were lined up behind a microphone, an arrangement that has worked well in the past but one the current PMO doesn't like.

Carolyn Stewart Olsen, Harper's press secretary, waded into the group of reporters to try and broker a compromise. But she found that the reporters, unhappy at the PMO's moves to limit media access to the government, were in no mood to accede to Harper's demands.

The result? Harper cancelled his meeting with the media.