Answer the Question you wish they asked

As many of you know, I'm political dork. One of the ways you can tell is that I have an unnatural fascination with the rules and traditions of our Parliament. I've participated in 5 different parliamentary simulations so far and have loved every minute of each of them. (Speaking of which Universities Model Parliament is coming up in the new year, sign up now) One of the great things about Parliamentary simulations is that you actually get to try your hand at things like Question Period.

For those of you who are less politically minded than I am, Question Period is a 50 minute block of time in Parliament during each sitting day where members of the house are able to ask questions of any government minister. Most of the time it is really bad theatre as everyone spends most of their time trying to get on the 6:oo news.

The thing I've learned about Question Period (and really answering political questions in general) is that you don't have to answer the question you were asked. As we like to say: "There's a reason they don't call it answer period". The first rule of answering questions in politics, whether in the house or from journalists is this:

DON'T ANSWER THE QUESTION YOU WERE ASKED;
ANSWER THE QUESTION YOU WISH YOU WERE ASKED.

Here's a link to part of a transcript where the Prime Minister is doing just that (Taken from a Media Scrum held at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto last Friday)