How the PMO story unfolded

When I answered a call Monday from the prime minister’s office, my first thought was Stephen Harper was planning to come to Barrie.

I have been a journalist here for more than two decades and have only heard from the offices of high-ranking politicians when they wanted coverage of a campaign visit or were coming to Barrie to make an announcement.

As I listened to the woman on the other end of the phone explain why she was calling, it quickly became obvious to me Harper was not coming. The caller, who identified herself as Erica Meekes, told me she wanted to send information regarding Justin Trudeau’s speaking engagement at Georgian College. She would send the information along if I agreed to identify the PMO as a “source.”

I thought it was a joke, someone pretending to be from the PMO.

I didn’t agree to the terms of the request because I didn’t know what the content was and I had no relationship with the person on the other end phone.

We had not contacted the PMO in search of this information. The situation was very odd.

I told the communications officer to send the information to me, saying I would have a look at it. That was the only promise I made.

When I received the email, subject line Justin Trudeau – Charity Losses, along with an explanation outlining the reason why it was sent and five attachments, the real story unfolded.

If this was real, it wasn’t right. Why would the PMO, not the Conservative Party, be sending us unsolicited background information on Trudeau?

I asked reporter Laurie Watt to contact Meekes by email and phone to make sure she was actually employed by the PMO.

Watt interviewed the communications officer by phone and contacted Barrie MP Patrick Brown via email as he was sitting in the House of Commons.

Original Article
Source: simcoe.com
Author: Lori Martin