National Post story

Harper's press secretary slaps Canadian Press photographer, tells him to 'shut up'

Anger boiled over on the Stephen Harper campaign this week when press secretary Carolyn Stewart-Olsen told a Canadian Press photographer to "shut up" and gave him two gentle slaps on the face, saying she was not happy with the pictures he has been taking.

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Harper's defenders are driven wild by the fact that the media appears to be waiting for him to slip up, for his campign to derail. Why, for instance, are questions about social issues being thrown at Harper by the media?
The reasons are thus: Anyone who has followed Harper's career is aware that he is a firebrand, a man whose mouth usually operates much more quickly than his brain (recall his comments in the House of Commons about where to find photos of Svend Robinson). The media is fully aware of the sudden change that has come over Harper since the election started, and they want to pop the bubble of artificiality that Harper's handlers have created around him. The rest of us are watching out of interest, waiting to see in which direction he will fly when that bubble is popped.