Don't mess with Liberal supporters

A crowd of Liberal supporters booed and heckled reporters today at a Toronto campaign stop as they tried to ask party leader Stéphane Dion about the status of a candidate accused of making anti-Semitic remarks.

That scene of reporters being shouted down has prompted the Liberals to change the format of their campaign events. From now on, Dion's daily news conferences will be held away from supporters, party aides say.

Dion had concluded a speech at a seniors centre, taken questions from the audience and was holding his daily news conference when supporters took issue when reporters asked Dion about Lesley Hughes, the Winnipeg candidate who had upset Jewish Canadians with her views.

"Focus on the issues," shouted one supporter at the reporters. "You know what, we don't care."

"Irrelevant," said another supporter.

Dion sought to quiet the crowd.

"You know what, we always respect the freedom of the press. We don't send the RCMP to stop the journalist," Dion said.

That's a reference to the heavy-handed tactics by the Prime Minister's Office who twice this campaign has asked the Mounties to block reporters from getting close to Harper or Conservative candidates.

"Ask your question please," Dion told the journalist.

 

Comments

[Sandy Thorburn]

This report suggests that the crowd was anti-Semitic, which is a false suggestion. They were not reacting to Lesley Hughes; they were reacting to the fact that this election is important, that DIon wanted to interact with the voters and he was side-swiped by reporters who kept (six times) bringing up side issues. Everyone who reads about this knows that even Ms. Hughes did not mean what she wrote years ago; it is absurd. What is at stake, and the news-media seem to think this is risible - is our Kyoto commitments, the Green Shift, and our position in the world. This is an issue, not muck-racking about old stories to rile people up about old news that even the person who wrote doesn't agree with. It seems that we will not get the government we deserve and the media, not the public will be to blame. Yesterday's meeting was a sad lesson for me in how little the average voter actually can participate in democracy.

[jay]

I saw that event on Newsworld and OMG it was strange. Because the liberals running the show had no mic for the audience, Dion couldn't hear the questions and walked off camera (or at least away from the podium) 3 times. Then the supporters went nuts...there was a shot of Gerard Kennedy looking absolutely panicked.

If these guys can't run a simple campaign event with less than 50 seniors (BTW - I think I know the building, there are likely a couple hundred seniors who live there) and the media, how could they run government. How could they re-write and implement a complete reworking of our tax system...