OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper has become legend for the iron control he exerts not only over the messages his government sends out over the heads of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, but also the messages his staff and MPs project.

And at the height of the Parliamentary firestorm over H1N1 a week ago, the hit-team that helps him maintain control over communications in times of crisis was putting in long hours.

The PMO issues-management unit, whose job it is to get on top of breaking developments even before they break, was meeting every morning at 6 a.m. The schedule was so gruelling one of the young staffers complained to another he was going to bed at 9 p.m. each night, adding "and I'm not 80 years old."

Liberals in the Opposition Leader's Office, meanwhile, were beginning their daily strategy and tactics meetings at 8:30 a.m. as swine flu developments dominated Question Period. The comparison of schedules demonstrates the intensity of discipline that now envelopes Harper and his staff.

But to critics, the PMO regime also shows the depth of Harper's determination to manage the government's information flow to the media as well as the public appearances and statements of his own MPs and Cabinet ministers.

They say the wall of selective silence and control that shrouds the entire government undermines the free flow of information citizens could normally expect in a western democracy. But in the short term, according to the polls, it seems to be working for the Prime Minister.

A member of Harper's staff who agreed to discuss the topic on a background basis would not confirm the prime minister's office has been either vetoing, or writing every press release, that comes out of Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq's (Nunavut) office. He said only that the Prime Minister's Office and the health minister's staff work closely, from the 6 a.m. meeting onward through each day.

He insisted the same procedure occurs on a range of issues ministers face, and no special measures have been instituted for the H1N1 drama. It fits into a "network" that was established before H1N1.

Military discipline handling a potential political crisis like swine flu, though, is only one aspect of Harper's single-minded focus on controlling his own image and his government's messaging. His avoidance of the news media on Parliament Hill has become nearly obsessive.

For at least two years, following his battle with the press gallery in 2006, Harper has snubbed the front door of the Commons for Question Period. He established a covert route to get to the Chamber from his third-floor Centre Block office, ducking down through a narrow hallway behind the public gallery atop the west side of the Chamber, down a small staircase, and then scuttling into the government lobby through a back door across from the House Speaker's Chamber.

Arriving and leaving the Centre Block, his motorcade now pulls up beside a renovated House Speaker's entrance at the West side of the building. Harper whisks in and out as his sun-glassed Mountie bodyguards give cover.

No Prime Minister has ever avoided the front entrance to the Commons and no one, at least outside of Harper's inner circle, understands why Harper does. Is it part of his strategy for media management, avoiding unwanted camera shots or shouted questions, or is it for security; the war in Afghanistan?

"We don't comment on strategy," was all PMO press secretary Andrew MacDougall would say.

Harper's stubborn insistence on managing his scrums and news conferences through deputy communications director Dimitri Soudas appears to have worn down members of the press gallery executive, who up to a year ago were firing off letters of complaint almost monthly.

Gallery President Helene Buzzetti says the struggle came to be too draining, a distraction from work, and there has only been one tentative exchange with Harper's new communications director, John Williamson. Nothing has come of it so far. Outside Ottawa, Harper most often arranges his news conferences at venues packed with party members, who usually applaud his remarks and occasionally express disapproval at reporters' questions. Favourable PMO photos of Harper now arrive at media inboxes across the country on almost a daily basis. Gallery veterans are convinced Soudas has a black list, journalists who won't be recognized for questions.

Nelson Wiseman, a prominent commentator and political scientist at the University of Toronto, says the press gallery and the media have caved. "Why are you putting up with these shenanigans?" the feisty Wiseman asks. "I thought the media was going to be a bit tougher."

NDP MP Thomas Mulcair agrees. "He's trained you guys," says Mulcair. "A lot of the media will behave now, so they'll get a minister on their show. Otherwise, they won't get a dog biscuit. They control access that way, and the basic question is: Are the media going to start asking the questions that have to be asked?"

EKOS pollster Frank Graves says Harper's tight media strategy and disciplined control over his caucus has worked. He says Harper has most likely been influenced by key Cabinet ministers he inherited from the former Mike Harris Conservative government of Ontario—Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Transport Minister John Baird, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan and Industry Minister Tony Clement—and Harper's chief of staff, Guy Giorno.

Graves says their approach, a leftover from the Harris days, is "very disciplined, very, very focused, very political, tightly managing things, no rogue speakers to disrupt the apple cart."

The public has apparently warmed to Harper's softer side, the version he presented at the National Arts Centre. But they don't see the cool and controlling side, and that's the way it's intended.

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