My buddy and CTV News Parliamentary reporter David Akin has an interesting post at the CTV Politics blog (and cross-posted to his own) about a question put on the House of Commons order paper by Ontario Conservative MP Scott Reid. An excerpt from Akin's post:

Q-104 2 — October 17, 2006 — Mr. Reid (Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington) — In each of the fiscal years 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, did any government department, agency, or Crown corporation enter into a professional services contract with a vendor whose name matches a name on the current public list of members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery published at http://www.gallery-tribune.ca , and, if so, for each contract of each vendor: ( a) to which department, agency, or Crown corporation were the services to be provided; ( b) what type of service was to be provided; ( c) what was the start date and final end date of the contract; and ( d) what was the total amount of payments made to the vendor?

After I saw that question on the Order Paper, I called Reid’s office several times to ask what it was he was interested in. Reid never returned my call.

On his personal blog, Akin also has this: Why journalists ought to pay attention to bloggers. An excerpt:

I’ve long argued that journalists ought to establish a routine to monitor blogs and other online sites that are germane to their beat. It’s a great eay to learn more about your beat and to find new sources.

But here’s another good reason: Public relations and communications professionals — the spin masters — are targetting blogs.

Tell me about it. :) (Also see this).

From globeandmail.com:

Torstar Corp. is cutting 85 jobs across its newspaper operations, a move that will save the publishing giant about $5.5-million a year. The company said yesterday it will take a restructuring charge of about $11-million in its fourth quarter because of the cuts, which will be both "voluntary and involuntary." Union representatives said most of the cuts involve voluntary buyout packages, and are not involuntary layoffs. Mike Sullivan, unit chair of the Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild, which represents workers at the flagship Toronto Star newspaper, said about 10 people were offered packages at that paper. A small number of managers were also let go, he said. Unionized and non-unionized employees also took voluntary packages at The Hamilton Spectator, The Kitchener-Waterloo Record and at the Metroland community newspaper arm, union and company spokesmen said. TS.B (TSX) rose 1 cent to $19.26.