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).