Thankfully, Colin Mayes, MP (Conservative – Okanagan-Shuswap-North Gulag) now no longer supports jailing reporters who write articles that strike him as unfair:

In a column e-mailed this week to several B.C. newspapers in his riding of Okanagan-Shuswap, Colin Mayes said that jailing reporters might help the public get accurate information.

“Maybe it is time that we hauled off in handcuffs reporters that fabricate stories, or twist information and even falsely accuse citizens,” Mayes wrote.

Mayes now says he regrets both his choice of words and the message they conveyed. That’s a retraction that begs at least a little elaboration. It’s not like he was mouthing off while half-snapped in some bar while a reporter silently took notes behind him; this was his column, written as the MP. (You have to wonder if that kind of retraction would have been enough to free a reporter who was being hauled off by under Mr. Mayes’ now-disavowed policy.)

This takes place against the backdrop of increasing hostility between the Prime Minister’s office and the media. The PMO recently announced a new policy centralizing control over cabinet ministers’ communications activities. How long before they launch a new “service” that will e-mail Conservative MPs’ columns to their local media – after a light bit of vetting, of course?