Many people have said how glamorous it must have been covering the recent premiers’ conference in Saskatoon. On the face of it, one might think so. I was introduced to one of my journalistic heroes, Mike Duffy, by no lesser personage than premier Roy Romanow.
I was smiled at by Manitoba’s Gary Filmon and shook the hand of Lucien Bouchard. I had dinner with Jason Moscovitz and Eric Sorenson of CBC and Edward Greenspon of the Globe and Mail.
I ate Saskatchewan pork, strawberry salad and chocolate pate on the deck of the (private) Riverside Golf Club and hobnobbed with cabinet ministers.
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I worked beside some of the giants in Canadian media. I had private interview time with the premier.
But glamorous? Not on your life.
The whole conference was a lot of hurry up and wait.
The sessions were closed, so all the journalists could do was wait to be summoned to the next briefing or photo op, which often ran late. We always knew from the scurrying in the ranks of staff and security when the premiers were drawing nigh.
I went to two photo ops: the first, the “official” portrait on the banks of the river next to the Bessborough. My pictures aren’t great because, first, I couldn’t get close enough and, second, I was too busy watching what all the other camera guys were doing. On the walk over to the Radisson, where the sessions were held, I was too busy listening to what the premiers were talking about to be bothered taking too many pictures. (A few of the more meaningful quotes: “sure is dry here”; “nice shirt”; “that is a church.”)
The second photo op came when we were allowed in the conference room for the first of two times in the three days. I lined up on the stairs with rest of the camera guys. All the guys ran upstairs with herd cries of “moo, moo”, “baa, baa” and “we are lemmings.” (How nice when we can laugh at ourselves.)
I walked, with the result that I was the last in the room, but it didn’t matter because the only shot I wanted was of premier Romanow sitting at the head of the table, while the rest had to get as many shots as possible in the three minutes allotted to us.
Many of the premiers and their families were heading to Waskesieu immediately following the conference. It would have been nice, but my feelings were more in tune with those of the Mountie who was heading home to his arm chair.
