Not on the first date

God, he wants to take him to a play, now. (One based on one of his own stories, of course.)

Throw in some modern dance and a vegan dinner and we're talking about the high-middlebrow trifecta. With any luck, they'll be home in time for The National.

"I told the person at the Prime Minister's Office, forget the spin that's been given on this, that I'm educating the prime minister. Go back to my first letter. It's not so confrontational. It's not buddy-buddy. But come on, you can't expect total obsequiousness.

Well, I mean, Yann can, but not the prime minister. How many Bookers has he won? Martel's right that he never proposed to "educate" Harper: what he said he would do was, again, to "make suggestions to his stillness."

Surely, there is room for dialogue with the prime minister, Martel says. Surely, an answer will come at some point, he adds, unless Harper's "vanity" gets in the way or he feels too defensive about being asked to discuss his reading habits.

Interesting diplomatic approach. Come on, Yann: say he's got a tiny dick while you're at it...

"Even if he doesn't respond, that is a response," Martel says. "Even if he ignores me for however long he's prime minister, that's says something. I'm a Canadian citizen. I'm a well-known writer. I'm writing him letters that are not insulting in any way. So, at one point, he should get me in a dialogue."

A long sigh followed by a rolling of the eyes – that would be a response, too. And one of the more likely.