Whether it is at Hamilton City Hall or on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, there is something about the relationship between politicians and media that leads to "leaks" -- giving journalists confidential information on condition they not be identified.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's top aide, Ian Brody, found himself in the spotlight recently for reportedly telling members of CTV news that U.S. Democratic party candidates' threats to end the North American Free Trade Agreement was just political posturing.

This month, the Globe and Mail reported on leaks apparently coming out of Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's weekly caucus meeting. They even reported what others in the caucus were saying about leaks, which included pleas to end the practice in the interest of party unity and banning BlackBerrys, those e-mail/cellphone devices from Waterloo-based RIM that no politician would be without.

Here in Hamilton, Nicole MacIntyre, The Spectator's City Hall reporter, was criticized by members of city council after she revealed a councillor had said in a closed-door, private meeting that Councillor David Mitchell had tried to influence him about making a decision on property Mitchell owned. Council publicly censured Mitchell for his actions, but several council members, including Mayor Fred Eisenberger, said they wanted to track down the source of the leak.

City manager Glen Peace was asked to contact Hamilton police to see if they would investigate who leaked information to the newspaper. The mayor even suggested private e-mails sent by councillors on their BlackBerrys should be investigated.

In the end, council voted not to investigate and talk of reviewing e-mails has been dropped.

The reality is, people leak information. They do it for all kinds of reasons -- personal gain, to undermine a rival, to win favour, to legitimately bring attention to an issue, or to be seen as "a person in the know."

The job of journalists is to obtain information, and if it is in the public interest, share it with their readers.

As my colleague Andrew Dreschel has noted, leaks have one thing in common: "At all levels of government, they can no more be stopped than the nature of politics can be changed."

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It has been a great month for the editorial staff at The Spectator. We received word that our reporters, editors and photographers had received more than 20 nominations in the annual Ontario Newspaper Awards. That is more than any other newspaper that entered the provincial competition.

Then just this week the newspaper received two National Newspaper Award nominations. Jon Wells received one for a series of stories he wrote on Hamilton superstar Daniel Lanois. Photographer Cathie Coward was nominated for a photograph she took after a young boy fell from a Hamilton apartment building and lived.

I know you will want to join me in congratulating all our nominees.

David Estok is The Spectator's editor-in-chief. editorfeedback@thespec.com