Er, Am I Crazy Or Should Political Reporters Maybe Know Things About Canada?

There were more than a few chuckles during Tuesday's GOP debate when Chris Matthews quizzed Fred Thompson on who the Prime Minister of Canada was — a ridiculously easy question and one which, as it turned out, even Thompson knew the answer to. (People: It's Stephen Harper.) Sure, Canada isn't often in the news (excepting the ascendant Loonie) but it's just enough of a presence so that the name of the PM should be up there with names like Sarkozy, Merkel, Brown, Prodi, and that dude who's the Prime Minister of Japan. We kid, but seriously: The G-8. Should a seasoned internet-trolling-C-SPAN-addicted- Drudge-scanning-five-newspaper-per-day-reading news junkie of a political reporter not know this stuff like breathing?

Apparently not, according to Washington Post national political correspondent Dan Balz on last night's "Hardball," where Chris Matthews made reference to his Thompson question and asked his guests — Balz, NBC White House correspondend David Gregory and Bloomberg's Margaret Carlson — for their thoughts on the political relevance of knowing about the country's fine and frigid neighbors to the North. "Dan Balz," said Matthews, "were you surprised he knew the question or surprised that I asked it?" Said Balz, a veteran political reporter of almost 30-years: "I can only tell you, Chris, in the press room, most reporters were relieved you didn't ask any of us." Whaaaaaaaat? Watch our (badly-captured, weirdly-frozen podcast-like clip here — sorry, computer issues yesterday):

(NB: As you can hear, the Balz quote hiccups in the middle, but that is the gist.)

I will say that this stunned me, fine as a Canadian but also as a media-watcher — I mean, hey, correct me if I'm wrong but most of these people aren't crazy about admitting that they don't know something. (But I could be mistaken!) I was even more stunned when David Gregory jumped in and felt the need to explain why he knew the name of Harper's predecessor, Jean Chrétien (though not how to pronounce it — "Cray-tee-yan," David Gregory? This from a guy who questioned Jacques Chirac in French? Eek.) Gregory explained that he knew Chrétien's name "because I've run around with the President and know these leaders and have seen them" — as opposed to, say, reading the news and being aware and having a decades-long career in the biz. Matthews made a good point by noting that Canada has the U.S.'s longest undefended border, is its most important trading partner, and is also a key exporter of fine bloggers. Okay he didn't say that but we know he was thinking it. After all, he was totally wearing the tie.

Also notable from the show: Carlson's use of the word "bellicose" to describe Giuliani got picked up and thrown around for the rest of the segment, and everyone felt smart; Romney senior advisor Barbara Comstock said that she thought Romney won the debate (duh); and the subtleties of presidential-candidate body language was discussed by crack HuffPo contributor John Neffinger, who has been bringing his analysis to bear on the canadidates via our HuffPo Liveblog Series (usual disclaimers apply). Several times during the show Chris exclaimed, "I love this stuff!" which, tie or no tie, made him very fun to watch. As any body language expert and your mother will tell you, everyone looks better when they smile.

Related:
Pretty representative photo of Jean Chretien [PoliticalFriendster.com]