HO
After being called a "pansy" by a cartoon Sarah Palin, Stephen Harper's experiment with YouTube might yet leave him pining for the parliamentary press gallery.
By late afternoon Friday, the response to the Prime Minister's pitch this week to hear from Canadians via the popular video website yielded 1,200 questions. They hit on a wide variety of topics, including many Mr. Harper likely won't be eager to address like legalizing marijuana and 9/11 conspiracy theories.
It often wasn't so much what they asked - it was how. Many did Marshall McLuhan proud, using the medium of do-it-yourself video to ask tough questions, while lampooning Mr. Harper with stinging messages. His controversial prorogation of Parliament was a prime target.
"You are what we call in Alaska, a pansy," said a digital cartoon of ex-Alaska governor Sarah Palin in one posting.
"Is it a Canadian tradition for Canadian leaders to run away and hide? If a president did what you did, there would be rioting in the streets? How did you get away with it?"
Another appended Britney Spears's video Oops, I Did It Again , to ask Mr. Harper whether he would ever again break his own fixed-election date law and call another snap election like he did in 2008.
Others were serious and direct, especially when it came to climate change.
One B.C. questioner challenged Mr. Harper's conduct at December's global climate-change meeting in Copenhagen: "I'm interested to know why Minister Prentice and yourself addressed the climate-change issue in such a way that Canada suffered an international embarrassment as the winner of the Fossil of the Day Award."
Another questioner attached a 29-minute video of a Bill Gates presentation to buttress a question on how Mr. Harper planned to fund his maternal and child-health program that he plans to push through the G8.
On the economy, bald and goateed Martyman500 from Markham, Ont., looked straight into the camera and asked the Prime Minister why he was bringing in the harmonized sales tax: "Why do you let big companies hire and fire workers so they have to avoid paying benefits?"
Mr. Harper has been criticized for avoiding the national media - and its tough questions - by taking his message directly to Canadians through advertising or local media.
There appeared to be few, if any, filters on his YouTube channel - based on what was posted Friday.
The Prime Minister has said he will answer the YouTube questions Tuesday.