The right way to think about Question Period

There are those who believe QP in its present form is without relevance or purpose. I disagree. And so, apparently, does the Prime Minister. This from a Hill Times interview with Lawrence Martin, author of Harperland.

You talk about how the media didn’t know about the Prime Minister’s daily Question Period Cabinet strategy meetings until much later in the game. Is the PM still holding daily QP Cabinet meetings?

“Yeah they are. This was an enormous change and nobody put anywhere near the amount of preparation for Question Period that Stephen Harper did—the old slogan, ‘Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.’ He was briefed in the morning first thing about what questions might come up at Question Period and again at lunch time with some of his top advisers, and then they’d have the full Cabinet session, which is almost like a dress rehearsal, about what questions might be thrown out and actually the Cabinet ministers sort of put them under more pressure. But they also liked it because they had more access to the Prime Minister, they could chat with him after the meeting and also Harper got a better sense of who was performing in the Cabinet, what they know and how they could present themselves.”