It began with a phone call from someone by the name of Alexis Pavlich on Sunday evening, Sept. 20. Alexis told me that she worked in the prime minister's office. I told her that I recognized her name from the many emails she's sent me.

Alexis said to me that I was invited to participate in a question-and-answer session with Stephen Harper on Tuesday, Sept. 22. She added that I would be one of a select number of media representatives who were being invited to attend.

One final note: She asked that I send her three questions in advance that I would like to pose to the prime minister.

Bernie Bellan, centre, with Winnipeg South Centre Conservative Candidate Joyce Bateman and party leader Stephen Harper at a campaign event on Tuesday. Bellan later posted this photo on the Jewish Post & News' Facebook page. (The Jewish Post & News/Facebook) I was immediately intrigued. Why was I, of all people, being asked to attend? I'm hardly a name journalist, and Stephen Harper has been consistent throughout his tenure as prime minister in treating the media with disdain — unless it serves his purpose to do otherwise.

I knew, however, the reason that I was being invited to attend whatever it was that Alexis had just invited me to attend: Joyce Bateman is in trouble in Winnipeg South Centre and having a representative of the Jewish media there — presumably to ask questions about Harper's support for Israel; possibly his stands on dealing with terrorism and ISIS — would play well with Jewish voters.

The questions

But, Alexis should have vetted me more thoroughly. I wasn't interested in playing along with whatever agenda that the Harper campaign team had in mind. Instead, I decided to formulate three questions, two of which I knew Harper would never want to answer.

Here are the questions that I sent to Alexis:

"1. Economist Joseph Stiglitz says that 'there is a long-standing, strong argument for what is called a balanced budget multiplier — if the government increases taxes at the very top and increases spending on infrastructure, education, technology, it stimulates the economy. Over the long term that reduces the deficit because higher growth means more revenue…. There isn't any body of research that supports the Harper (government) view.' What evidence is there that balancing the budget during a downturn period in the economy will help to boost the economy?

"2. The Conservative government alienated many voters who might have voted Conservative in the past by doing such things as cutting funding for the Experimental Lakes Area and eliminating the long-form census. Even owners of small businesses decried the elimination of the long-form census. Would you consider bringing back the long-form census if you were to form government again?

"3. The power of the PMO has continued to grow exponentially during your tenure as prime minister. Your obsession with controlling the message has put extreme limits on reporters' abilities to obtain information. Now that you're in trouble in current Conservative-held constituencies, a reporter from a small newspaper such as mine is asked to meet with you. That would never occur under any other circumstance. Is that not an indication that you are conceding that you're in trouble electorally?"

Alexis wrote back, asking if it would be all right if my first question were to be shortened to: "What evidence is there that balancing the budget during a downturn period in the economy will help to boost the economy?"

What was I going to say? "No, if I can't ask my question in full then I don't want to ask it at all?" I knew what this was all about, but I figured that asking even an edited question was better than not asking any question at all.

Further, I didn't understand what the format was going to be. I expected there to be a huge number of representatives of various ethnic media, each of whom would probably have a particular agenda, and who knew whether I was even going to be allowed to ask the question myself? I expected that the question would be read out by someone else and Harper would launch into a well-rehearsed speech that might or might not even refer to my question.

I also told Alexis that I was going to show up late for the media session. I had no interest in attending the photo op that she said would take place before whatever media session this was going to be, especially since she said I would have to be there by 8:15 a.m.

Meeting day

So, I rode my bike to Bison Transport at around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, expecting to be met by a phalanx of security. Instead there was one young guy, nicely dressed, who asked me who I was. I said that I had an invitation to attend a media session with the PM and, without even asking me to produce ID, he said, "Go right in."

Stephen Harper speaks to supporters while campaigning at Bison Transport in Winnipeg on Tuesday. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press) I entered what appeared to be a vast warehouse as a throng of Conservative supporters, who were presumably there to serve as a backdrop for another Conservative photo op, was making its way out.

After waiting about 20 minutes, I, along with three other individuals, was asked to follow someone to another part of the warehouse.

(I remarked to someone along the way that I felt like I was in the final scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the ark ends up being put into a giant warehouse. I said that it would be neat if we found the lost ark in this warehouse, as it would play nicely with the Conservatives' large religious base.)

In short order, we were shown a table that had four microphones on it. What were we being set up for, I wondered?

A young woman introduced herself as an assistant to the PM and told us that we were going to sit down at this table with the prime minister, then be allowed to ask our questions. There weren't many other people there — just a few youngish-looking, earnest young men and women.

'Nice to meet you, Jim'

In walked the prime minister, accompanied by Joyce Bateman, the Conservative candidate in Winnipeg South Centre (who was elected MP in 2011). The young woman who invited us to sit down asked me my name.

I replied, "Jim Carr." She said, "Nice to meet you, Jim."

At that point Joyce Bateman, who was apparently standing behind me, put her hands around my neck and said, "This isn't Jim Carr. Jim Carr is my Liberal opponent. This guy is such a kidder. His name is Bernie Bellan and he's the publisher of The Jewish Post & News."

The candidates in Winnipeg South Centre are: Jim Carr (Liberal), Joyce Bateman (Conservative), Andrew Park (Green Party) and Matt Henderson (NDP). (CBC) (Too bad Joyce exposed me. I would have liked to see Harper's reaction if that young woman had introduced me as Jim Carr. Does Harper know who Jim Carr is? I'm sure he does. Would he have laughed? I'll never know.)

At that point, I was asked to voice the first question. I thought, "Why should I just read out the shortened form of the question that I had sent to Alexis?" The atmosphere seemed so relaxed and Harper seemed to be in a good mood. Why not refer to Joseph Stiglitz — who is, by the way, a Nobel Prize winner in economics — and put my question in a broader context than what Alexis had asked me to do?

So, I asked the prime minister whether he had read Stiglitz's recent interview in Maclean's magazine. He replied that he hadn't. I explained that Stiglitz had argued that obsessing about balanced budgets during a period of economic downturn is exactly the wrong thing to do, and asked the question that Alexis had told me I could ask.

Harper launched into a 3½-minute defence of his determination to balance the budget, voicing the talking points that we've come to hear so often during the course of this campaign. I would have loved to engage him in debate — and, given his clear mastery of economics, no doubt he would have been totally at ease in answering me — but I was well aware that this wasn't going to happen.

So what happened?

At this point, if you've read this far, you might well be wondering, "Isn't Bellan going to quote at least part of what Harper had to say in response to his question?"

The answer is no.

If it's not clear by now that I wasn't interested in serving as a prop for whatever it was that Harper's organizers had in mind by inviting me to this quite unusual media session, well, I'll state it in clear and succinct terms: I had no desire to be used by Harper — nor, for that matter, did I let myself be used by Justin Trudeau when I was invited to attend a similar event last spring, although in that case there were a lot more representatives of other ethnic media, all of whom asked very boring questions, to which Trudeau responded in well-rehearsed answers that also bored me to no end.

The one time I was able to engage in any sort of a meaningful question-and-answer session with a leading politician was when I was allowed to sit down with then-Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, who was confident enough to engage in a real interview, not some sort of prolonged staged event.

Someone else did ask Harper about his positions on fighting terrorism and ISIS. No doubt Conservative supporters reading this are going to be disappointed that I'm not going to quote from the answer he gave to that question any more than I'm going to quote from his answer about running deficits.

Interestingly, once the question-and-answer session was concluded, Harper called me and the other Jewish media representative over and said that he wanted to add something about Canada's support for Israel.

Would you be surprised if I told you that Harper reaffirmed his support for Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East? Let's be honest: The Conservatives have earned a strong surge of support among many Canadian Jews for their unwavering support for what I would describe as Binyamin Netanyahu's Israel. (If you're familiar with my repeated criticism of Netanyahu in my paper, you'd know that I'm not exactly enamoured of the direction in which he's taken that country.)

Picture time

At that point it was time for pictures, and I wasn't going to begrudge Joyce Bateman her opportunity to have a picture taken with Harper — and me.

Hey, I even thought it would give me some cred with Harper supporters if I posed for a picture with him and Joyce. I'd done that several times with Justin Trudeau — and put those pictures on The Jewish Post & News Facebook page, as well as on the front page of the paper — so why not with Harper, too?

(I did put a picture up on Facebook of me with Harper and Bateman and did get some angry responses from critics of Harper, asking me whether I was now a Harper supporter. I replied that I keep my voting preferences confidential. Actually, I consider myself an "equal opportunity offender." There aren't any politicians that I would treat with great deference.)

One final note: I had handed my iPhone to a young guy by the name of Matthew, asking him to take the picture with Harper, Bateman, and me. For some reason, Matthew couldn't get the iPhone to take a picture. I grabbed it from him, tested it myself, saw that it was working fine, handed my iPhone to the young woman whom I had told I was Jim Carr, asked her to take the picture, and said to Matthew, "Matthew, you're just not ready!"

Bernie Bellan is the editor and publisher of The Jewish Post & News in Winnipeg.