Not only is the contingent of reporters who follow Mr. Trudeau and the other leaders around considerably smaller than in the past, it’s now almost entirely made up of journalists from television networks. Mr. Trudeau’s staff told me that reporters and columnists from Canadian newspapers have floated in and out. But a reporter for The Canadian Press news service and I were the only representatives of what event organizers now call “print and digital media” on the Iqaluit outing.

Like any day on the Liberal campaign, journalists, or more precisely their employers, paid 1,000 Canadian dollars to come along.

Mr. Trudeau’s campaign planes have attracted unusual attention this election. First a bus carrying reporters unwisely tried to drive under the wing of one of the planes, damaging it. Then, the Conservatives charged that having two planes undermines Mr. Trudeau’s climate change agenda. The Liberals shot back by noting that they buy carbon offsets, while the Conservatives do not.