1. Look at every contact with the media as an opportunity to get your message out. 2.

Study media formats and reporters, and read everything from light memoirs to heavy anthropological studies to find out more about the media. 3. Never forget youre talking to a journalist. 4. Dont be afraid of silencedont fill the gap with gaff, just smile and wait for the next question. 5. Dont argue ethics or efficacy with a journalist. Reform the media on your own timeyoure just doing your organization harm by attacking the media. 6. Remember the setting youre inthe background may get on TV or be described on radio or in print. 7. Give reporters the best briefing materials your company can produce. Itll show up in the story. 8. Take bad press in strideits sure to come eventually. Both these books underline the importance of television to companies, governments and lobby groups. Its not too simplistic or even superficial to say its not what you say, but how you say it and how you convey it, that counts in the electronic age. There are dozens or more sociological ways of saying it, and lots of die-hards who wish it werent so, but those are the facts. This account originally appeared in Law Times. I am re-reading it shortly after a new Liberal leader, Stephane Dion has taken over his party after a convention that was probably more exciting than the 1968 event that Mr. Trudeau won on the fourth ballot. Trivia buffs will remember this was just one of three celebrated altercations Mr. Trudeau had. While Prime Minister, he had a famous shoving match with reporter Jim Munson, now a Senator. After leaving office, he kicked a TV interviewer in the groin for clowning around with him too much. For almost exactly thirty-seven years, that famous silhouette of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau has been staring down at me from a frame on my wall. The silhouette is a 1960s icon in Canadian politics. Its main use was as a poster in Trudeaus successful 1968 leadership bid. It was resurrected 16 years later at his farewell speechperhaps his or any politicians best. The reason this image has been scrutinizing my mundane office work is that its on the menu from a famous fundraising dinner at Seaforth Armoury in Vancouver. It was 1969 and I was a young teenager taken as a guest by my father, Harold Bonner. Harold was trying to rebuild the waterfront in a doomed effort called Project 200 and attended the dinner as part of a general

P U G N A C I O U S P I E R R E T R U D E AU

138

MAKING

THE

BEST

OF

MEDIA INTERVIEWS

PUGNACIOUS PIERRETRUDEAU

139

lobbying effort. The reason the dinner is famous is that it ended in the Prime Minister getting charged with common assault. Remember? Heres how the event looked from the inside. The Prime Minister came in, made a few remarks, left for a short while, came back, borrowed my fork because hed missed dinner, ate and left for good. Heres how it looked from the outside. There was a protest about something or other going on. In fact, it was probably about a number of thingsVietnam, jobs, legalizing marijuana and Trudeau himself. Protesting was a bit of a sport in those days and any excuse would do. At any rate, Trudeau decided to walk out into the crowd and reason with them. He stepped up on a soap box or something and tried to talk things over with the crowd. It became apparent that the protesters would not quiet down and listen, so the Prime Minister decided to go back inside and borrow my fork. As Trudeau began parting the crowd and meandering through, he ended up face to face with a 17 year old kid whod hitchhiked across the country to experience Vancouver in the summer of 69. Not knowing what to say, the kid looked into those steely eyes and said to the Prime Minister, faggot. Judo Black Belt Trudeau instantly hauled off and punched the kid right in the nose. He fell back into the arms of several reporters. The evening, both on the inside and outside, proceeded without further incident. A couple of days later, a reporter found the kid in a drop-in centre and incited him to press charges against Trudeau. By the time the kid tried to retain a good lawyer, the best in town were tied up by the other side. They got Trudeau off on some technicality like extenuating circumstances or the Prime Ministers fear for his safety. Few thought more of the incident for a while until a couple of days past the kids 18th birthday. A friend knocked at the door with another guy in tow. They asked to buy some LSD. The kid had a grand total of four tabs for personal use. He told them a couple of times that he did not want to sell any, but the house guests persisted. When the kid gave in, out came the friend of a friends badge and the arrest went down. The kid was charged with trafficking.

At a time when serious pushers were given two years less a day, he was sentenced to two years plus a day, so he had to do harder time at Okalla Prison. He was beaten up every other week for about a year until he was offered Outward Bound, the wilderness school, for his last year. When I tracked the kid down decades later, he was back in small town Ontario, very hopeful about a move to a new community and a new start in construction. I had the impression things had not gone well for him, and felt a twinge of irony, even guilt about how well things had gone for me over the years. But the kid was middle aged now and had little rancor over the matter. He does not blame the former Prime Minister. He assumes some individual police officers decided to pursue the matter vigorously. He credits Outward Bound with turning his life around. Considering Pierre Trudeaus early days as an agitator and asbestos protester, I bet he would have sympathized with the kid.

140

PUGNACIOUS PIERRETRUDEAU

PUGNACIOUS PIERRETRUDEAU

141