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Oddly, my singular influence has not noticeably improved our democracy. Yet. Give me another couple months. (I do still believe in the general theory though. Short of formal or informal reform, close and regular scrutiny is the only way QP is going to get better.)

We have several people who are paid to provide their opinions on such stuff. And Ottawa is full of people who will happily tell you their opinion about every minor event. I can't imagine what I could possibly add to all that.

It seems that access to this government has long been an issue for the press gallery, but that fight predates my arrival in Ottawa. I'm fairly unmoved by that particular conflict. I fail to see how the Prime Minister showing up at the National Press Gallery more often would necessarily improve the coverage of politics in this country.

The detainees thing seems to have been rather problematic for the government side. I never have any idea how anything will resonate with voters.

I'm in the gallery between 2pm and 3pm every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. What you see on TV is what you get, minus all the nonsense that goes on off camera. Which is where I come in.

Allow more time for questions and answers. Move to a rotation, whereby the Prime Minister is there only once a week. Move QP to the morning.

It seems to me that everyone gets along fairly well. At least after hours.

Dominic LeBlanc, Paul Dewar, Gilles Duceppe and Chuck Strahl.

I'm not a fan really. I'm a fan of the Toronto Raptors, but I wasn't when I had to write about them everyday. It's impossible to really like something that way when you have to cover them. I think Dion was an interesting experiment. I think he probably wasn't quite as bad as he was made out to be. Or maybe he was as bad, but for different reasons. But he was fascinating to watch as a test of what we value in politics and political leadership.

Sometimes. I guess I didn't know exactly what I expected when I came here, but I didn't expect it to be the way it is. That said, it's hardly a hardship and generally a lot of fun.

Please consult the nearest constitutional scholar. These are the sorts of hypothetical questions that get tossed around but never really answered until the GG actually gets put in such a position.

I have to wear a shirt and tie to sit in the House of Commons press gallery and if I don't the nice man who enforces such things kicks me out. Does that count?

I think there's probably a lot more camaraderie and cooperation amongst MPs than we realize. When I talked to Peter Stoffer earlier this year, he mentioned that he sometimes lets government ministers know if he's going to be asking a complicated question in QP. He figures it gives him a better chance of getting an answer.

Whatever "mainstream media" is suffering from, it is almost definitely self-inflicted.

No live blogging. I can't type that fast. And I prefer an 800 word summation with the benefit of some afterthought to a stream of consciousness report from the scene. That said, what that one Hill blogger (her name escapes me at this moment) has accomplished by live blogging committees and such is encouraging and valuable. Just a choice of style, I guess.

It seems to me that everything in this country is a threat to national unity. And yet, we endure.

That I don't like jazz.

On average? Maybe half a dozen. I can think of a couple who are there every day. Others wander in periodically.

It's tough to sleep with all the yelling. That's why John Baird's there. To make sure everyone's paying attention.

I wrote last year that being on the Hill for awhile you forget that they're a bunch of MPs dedicated to breaking up the country. They obviously are rather preoccupied with Quebec, but otherwise, in QP and in committees, they seem to have valuable members who make a legitimate contribution to the place. But this is one of those things that separates how things are perceived inside the Queensway as opposed to the rest of the country.

The Leafs.

It doesn't seem like we're anywhere near answering all of the outstanding questions on this. If the opposition is committed to pressing it and various reporters are willing to see it through, I imagine this could go on for months. That said, Ottawa tends to lose patience with anything that can't be brought to a conclusion in 48 hours or less.