The reporters

No wonder they are having bad coverage, you gotta keep the lack of wolves fed or they will chew you up!

"From: Chase, Steven (With the NDP)
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004
Subject: Zeroplan

Disgruntled reporters covering Jack Layton have a new name for the NDP: no damn points.

Both the Conservatives and New Democrats are flying on Air Canada planes, but only the Tories are granting journalists Aeroplan points for flying on the leader's plane. (Media outlets pay hefty travel bills to place reporters on these jets)

Aeroplan points are a little-known perquisite of plane travel on campaign tours that leaves lucky reporters with a bevy of free flights after the election.

But the NDP failed to secure Aeroplan points when negotiating their campaign jet hire. The omission has left journalists gnashing their teeth over the incredible point windfall they are missing. (Quietly gnashing of course so as not to appear petty and small minded in the midst of a potentially historic election campaign.)

The NDP plane racks up about 12,500 kilometres of air travel per week - a tidy sum when converted into precious Aeroplan points.

NDP officials have repeatedly answered queries from whiny journalists about Aeroplan with the phrase 'We're working on it.'

This week the cause appeared lost when the NDP spokesman's reponse changed to: 'I thought we'd moved beyond that.'

Still, there are consolations: orange and silver Jack Layton travel mugs are standard issue to all NDP campaign reporters."