OTTAWA—“We’ll take a few pictures before everyone goes.’’

With those words, Stephen Harper wrapped up a 45-minute encounter with media in Vancouver last week, a session that has taken on a life on its own, and now goes by the name the “secret ethnic media meeting.’’

The assembled journalists laughed on cue at the prime minister’s witticisms, one thanked him on behalf of those who had fled Iran from the “bottom of our hearts,’’ no one challenged Harper, followed up with a second question or pushed him on the Senate, tax dollars wasted on government advertising, the unemployment rate, or even gaps in his own security on day when protesters got within inches of him at the Vancouver Board of Trade.

In other words, it worked just as Harper wanted.

Because these encounters do unfold as planned, they will continue operating in this fashion, micro targeting so-called ethnic voters, sanitizing public encounters by using polite moderators to toss out innocuous questions, posting their own thoroughly scrubbed version of events on a website entitled 24/7 or launching a dedicated webpage to leverage support (and money) to laud Harper’s historic trip to Israel next week.

The so-called mainstream media reacts poorly when Harper goes behind closed doors to meet with “cultural media” with no mention on an itinerary and no access for other journalists, but this is not a new tactic.

What was new this time was, thanks to Vancouver’s 24 Hours, we have an audio tape of the session, and it is revealing in Harper’s view about the role of the media.

It also makes one wonder why this is exercise took on the trappings of a state secret, complete with leaked audiotape.

In fairness, Harper has done interviews with major networks and newspapers in this country, including four at year’s end, and at least two this week, but a 45-minute roundtable with no agenda is a non-starter.

Harper himself explained why it was important for him to engage with the so-called ethnic media, which he called some of the larger media in the country with some of the most loyal readers and viewers.

“You are vital to us getting our message to Canadians and helping keep the Canadians you speak to informed about the national life of our country,’’ he said.

Harper didn’t invent this direct appeal to ethnic voters, but he has refined it and the reason is obvious.

There are 30 new seats up for grabs in the 2015 election, six of them in British Columbia, 15 in Ontario, most carved out of the teeming suburbs around Vancouver and Toronto, all home to heavy concentrations of ethnic voters, all of them already held by Conservatives who are determined to keep this edge against any incursion from Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats or Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.

These voters get their news from the outlets represented at the Vancouver event.

This is not to denigrate the journalists present, because we all have agendas based on our readership and trade deals with India and Korea are top of mind if your market is recent arrivals from those countries.

Harper was the relaxed, statistics-spouting politician Canadians rarely get to see, taking a shot at allies who have jumped on the Iranian “bandwagon,’’ cautioning Canadians to ensure they can handle their debt load if interest rates jump in the next “two or three years” and offering a blunt assessment of the abuses of the temporary foreign workers program that mushroomed under his watch.

Harper will get the coverage he covets in media that serves areas with a high concentration of votes he also covets.

That’s good politics and most Canadians couldn’t care less if other journalists are shut out.

His reluctance to sit down and talk about issues with the national media may not be puzzling but his view on the role of the ethnic media is troubling.

It is not our role, whether we represent The Toronto Star or Asian Star Weekly, to play a “vital” role in getting the government’s message out.

Both Liberals and Progressive Conservatives once played a variation of this game, giving priority to local reporters on trips outside Ottawa, in the belief they would toss softer questions to their leader.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

That blew up when the local reporters decided they didn’t want to play that role and asked tougher questions than the Ottawa gang.

If Harper really thinks the ethnic media are there to help him deliver an unfiltered message, one of them is going to rise up and bite him before anyone poses for any pictures.

Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. tharper@thestar.ca Twitter:@nutgraf1

Read more about: