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WELCOME TO OTTAWA PLAYBOOK. We're your hosts, Nick Taylor-Vaisey and Zi-Ann Lum. It's Monday, which means a fully reopened Canada-U.S. land border (sorta). Also, the Liberal caucus meets for the first time since the election. And we have the latest developments on the Line 5 pipeline saga.
DRIVING THE DAY
IT'S OPEN — When was the last time you fretted about border wait times? How long has it been since an outlet shopping run to Buffalo or Bellingham? When you woke up this morning, every Canada-U.S. land crossing looked closer to normal than any point since March 21, 2020 — the day everything came to a halt.
But this is all a bit anticlimactic, if we're being honest.
Canada reopened to fully vaccinated American travelers on the eve of Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU's election call in August, so the Yanks and their license plates from the Lower 48 have been all over cottage country. And it slowly dawned on Canadians in those early pandemic months that they could still fly to warmer climes. It made for an expensive return, what with hotel quarantines and repeated tests, but keener snowbirds still flocked south.
— The remaining inequity: BRIAN HIGGINS has gained modest fame for his relentless border advocacy. As the uneven reopening frustrated Canadians and Americans alike, the nine-term Democratic congressman for the Buffalo-Niagara region took shots at whomever had the power to balance the scales.
Higgins's latest and last obstacle to a free-flowing, late-pandemic border utopia is Ottawa's insistence that anyone crossing into Canada requires a negative PCR test taken no more than 72 hours prior to entry. It can be costly, he says. It's not based on credible science, he insists. (One oddity of the policy: Canadians can actually get tested on home soil before their trip.)
THERESA TAM last week said officials were "actively" reviewing the policy. "I do think all of this needs to be reexamined," she said.
Higgins is impatient. This morning he'll be at Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House in Buffalo, along with Erie County Executive MARK POLONCARZ, Visit Buffalo Niagara CEO PATRICK KALER, Invest Buffalo Niagara CEO TOM KUCHARSKI, and MARY ROBERTS, ED of the Martin House. Their mission: Celebrate.
That's at 10:30. An hour earlier, though, Higgins will again push for an end to mandatory PCR testing along with four mayors: Windsor's DREW DILKENS, Sarnia's MICHAEL BRADLEY, and JIM DIODATI and ROBERT RESTAINO — their worships from both sides of Niagara Falls. BARBARA BARRETT from the Frontier Duty Free Association will moderate.
QUEBEC VOTES — VALÉRIE PLANTE headlined municipal election results across the province as she scored a convincing win in a rematch with former mayor and federal immigration minister DENIS CODERRE.
Radio-Canada reporter DANIEL LEBLANC noted that several of Quebec's five largest cities will be run by women. FRANCE BÉLISLE in Gatineau and CATHERINE FOURNIER in Longueuil will join Plante in their respective mayors' chairs. MARIE-JOSÉE SAVARD in Quebec City lost after a close race.
— Comeback time: NDP leader JAGMEET SINGH congratulated his former deputy leader, GUY CARON, on winning the mayor's race in Rimouski. Caron won more than three-quarters of the vote.
He's not the first Orange Wave alum to win municipally. Former Vaudreuil–Soulanges MP JAMIE NICHOLLS has served as mayor of Hudson — JACK LAYTON's hometown — since 2017. He lost his bid for reelection last night to architect and former town councillor CHLOE HUTCHISON.
PIPELINE PILE-ON — Temperatures are dropping but the political fight over Line 5 is heating up, though Natural Resources Minister JONATHAN WILKINSON is hopeful Michigan’s dispute with the Enbridge pipeline “will get resolved in the coming months.”
South of the border, word that the Biden administration is quietly studying the potential market impact of killing the pipeline, first reported by POLITICO, got Republicans fired up, warning a shutdown would “undoubtedly further exacerbate shortages and price increases in home heating fuels like natural gas and propane.”
Wilkinson said Friday that different levels of government, and shippers, are working on a contingency plan to get crude oil and natural gas liquids to Sarnia, Ontario, if Line 5 is shut down. “But I would say that is a contingency plan that we hope never to have to use.”
Environment Minister STEVEN GUILBEAULT joined Wilkinson on the call with reporters from COP26 in Glasgow. Guilbeault doubled down on the argument that nixing Line 5 wouldn’t do much to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
It’s a view the Canadian government has adopted in contrast to Michighan’s argument that the 68-year-old pipeline’s continued operation through the Straits of Mackinac poses an environmental risk after an anchor strike damaged the lines three years ago.
— Guilbeault’s argument: “In Quebec, my own province, we consume about 360,000 barrels of oil every year. And shutting down Line 5 tomorrow morning would still mean that Quebec would continue consuming 360,000 barrels of oil every year. That oil would have to come from somewhere.
"Maybe import from other countries, by ship, through mostly the Gulf and the St. Lawrence River, putting at harm belugas, marine mammals such as the right whale and other whales.”
Does shutting down Line 5 bring the world closer to “our collective goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?” the environment minister said in response to POLITICO’s question about Line 5. “The answer to that is no.”
Read the latest from POLITICO's Line 5 coverage: Biden faces heat from Canada, Republicans, Michigan’s governor and the price of propane
TRANSITION TENSION — Foreign investment has become too political, according to Business Council of Canada president GOLDY HYDER. The voice of big business told journalists during a call organized by the business council that fighting politicization is a perennial problem as Canada faces a large-scale shift toward a low-carbon economy. Failure to ratchet down the politics, he says, risks investors and businesses taking their money elsewhere.
“You can have a lot of change really quick here,” said Hyder, referencing the past seven elections that have produced five minority governments. “And money looks at that and goes, this is unpredictable and unstable regulatory risk and financial risk warning. “
Executives from some of the organization’s biggest members — Suncor, Rio Tinto, GM Canada, Nutrien and RBC — joined the call to boast about how their own projects met the tall order of net-zero ambitions.
— “Lose-lose proposition.” Canada needs to reassert its reputation as a country “that can actually build things” via a reliable and predictable regulatory framework, Hyder said. “These are not one-year, two-year projects. These are 15, 20, 25, 30 years out, investments that are trying to be made.
Meanwhile, in the OLO: While Wilkinson and Guilbeault were advocating for the continued operation of Line 5, Conservative Leader ERIN O’TOOLE’s office added more fuel to a campaign aimed at discrediting the former Greenpeace activist-turned-environment minister. The CPC’s latest missive warned Trudeau and Guilbeault “are determined to strangle Canada’s energy exports and investments for ideological reasons.”
CAUCUS STARTUP — As The Hill Times first reported, a faction of up to 30 Conservative MPs and senators will meet today to figure out how their “Civil Liberties Caucus” is actually going to work in Parliament. “This has nothing to do with the leader,” Conservative MP MARILYN GLADU tells Playbook. “We've not even talked about the leadership at this civil liberties caucus.”
— What’s next: One of the first items on the political upstart’s to-do list is drafting a letter calling on the government to remove the requirement for double-vaxxed and asymptomatic travellers to have a negative PCR test to return to Canada.“This is something we're hearing from constituents is costly and logistically difficult,” the Sarnia–Lambton MP said.
The intra-party caucus is intended to be informal, reminiscent of past groups organized around Bitcoin and natural health products. Gladu said the timing of its launch is a response to speculation committees may not start until February. “These are things that normally committees would deal in. And so we thought, let's get together and talk about it.”
— In global affairs: Foreign minister MÉLANIE JOLY took a break from wall-to-wall briefings to dish out a pair of urgent Sunday releases on crises far from the comfy confines of COP26. Joly's department is withdrawing non-essential staff from Canada's embassy in Ethiopia — as well as families of embassy staff — as rebels threaten to topple the country's government.
Joly also reacted to the attempted assassination of Iraqi prime minister MUSTAFA AL-KADHIMI, whose home in Baghdad's protected "Green Zone" was hit by a weapons-laden drone: “Terrorism, violence and other illegal acts have no place in the democratic process. Canada will continue to stand with the Iraqi people and echoes Prime Minister al-Kadhimi’s call for calm and restraint."
1,160 — That's how many hours passed between the moment the Liberals won a third term and their first post-campaign caucus meeting. Some MPs aren't exactly thrilled, and have been anonymously grumbling about it to the Hill Times' ABBAS RANA for weeks.
They'll meet at 10:30 this morning in West Block, where the PM will deliver opening remarks to the hybrid group with reporters watching. All the fun will happen when the journalists leave the room.
Surveying the detritus of those complaints and overlaying them on Trudeau's history as party leader and PM, PAUL WELLS diagnosis in Maclean's last week was simple: "This guy really, really needs his quiet time."
There's a lot of commotion behind the scenes. Ministers are staffing up (more on that in Playbooks to come), the Speech from the Throne is going through drafts, and parliamentarians are slowly but surely experiencing the delight of swearings-in (more on that below). Still, most of the rest of Ottawa is waiting for the real action to begin.
— The numbers: CBC's CHRISTIAN PAAS-LANG reports that, historically speaking, the gap between the national vote and the Speech from the Throne that opens Parliament isn't particularly noteworthy. This year's 63-day gap is a tick over a week longer than the 55-day average since 2000.
Just don't make that argument in front of Liberals who thought they were fighting an urgent election, and repeated that line ad nauseum at the door before they waited weeks for news from the center on when exactly they'd take their seat in the Commons — or even meet the rest of their caucus colleagues.
SIMON SAYS — Rideau Hall sent a note to Hill reporters in September that signaled references to the governor general should use her full name, MARY MAY SIMON. The GG had previously been MARY SIMON in most references. A Friday update from the vice-regal press office noted "feedback" on the GG's expanded name — and offered a new new approach. Mary May Simon "will be used for official and constitutional documents." Mary Simon "will be used for communications with the public, such as social media, news releases and media events."
Sunday in Ottawa, the GG commemorated Annie Pootoogook Park, in memory of the Inuk artist from Kinngait.
ELSEWHERE TODAY: The COP26 U.N. climate summit continues. Former U.S. President BARACK OBAMA is in Glasgow, where he’ll meet young activists and give a speech at 2 p.m. local time. And Facebook whistleblower FRANCES HAUGEN is in Brussels today for a visit that could increase pressure on Big Tech companies and shed some light on their shady use of private data. It is the latest stop on Haugen’s European trip, which has seen the former Facebook employee visit London and Berlin. (h/t Brussels Playbook)
TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS
Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU will deliver opening remarks to the Liberal national caucus meeting at 10:30 ET. He'll also meet with Indigenous veterans at the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument in Confederation Park across the street from the Lord Elgin hotel. Otherwise: "private meetings."
Tory leader ERIN O'TOOLE will hold a press conference on the Hill at 11:30 ET.
NDP leader JAGMEET SINGH will also mark Indigenous Veterans Day at the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument. He'll meet the NDP caucus at 10 ET.
PAPER TRAIL
FROM THE TENDERS — The Public Health Agency is spending C$15 million on smallpox vaccines. That disease has been eradicated, but PHAC is stockpiling shots "should a risk ever arise where smallpox is intentionally or unintentionally released." A post-pandemic lesson: Better safe than sorry.
A year after Natural Resources Canada launched a national hydrogen strategy (after three years of consultations), the department is looking for a contractor who can tell the government how to spend wisely on the "hydrogen economy" — a key plank in Canada's road to net-zero emissions. Deadline: May.
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MEDIA ROOM
— Canadian flags on government buildings are now flying at full-staff for the first time since May 30. CBC has the details.
— THE BIG STORY pod considers ANITA ANAND's new assignment. And on FRONTBURNER this morning: A reality check on Canada's climate targets.
— The Star’s ALEX BALLINGALL jetted to an all-inclusive in Punta Cana in an attempt to answer the question: Is it fun to venture abroad again?
— CBC’s West of Centre convened JASON MARKUSOFF, EMMA GRANEY and DUANE BRATT to discuss culture at the Alberta legislature, the return of Brian Jean and this weekend’s United Conservative Party AGM.
— Historian TIM COOK joined Sen. PAMELA WALLIN to talk about about war and remembrance. Stick around until the end of the pod for Leonard Cohen’s recitation of In Flanders Fields.
— Economist FRANCES DONALD on The Herle Burly lives up to the Twitter buzz and should be required listening for us all. Here’s Bank of Canada Governor TIFF MACKLEM on CTV’s Question Period this weekend.
AROUND THE HILL
SHOW AND TELL — LISA MARIE BARRON is a first-time MP who won back British Columbia’s Nanaimo–Ladysmith for the NDP.
The former school board trustee will serve as deputy critic for mental health and addictions and critic for fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.
— Top of mind: “Signing the scroll, I was thinking about how grateful I am to follow in the footsteps of the amazing women leaders who came before me and paved the way for me. I was reflecting how grateful I was to be there surrounded by family and felt excited to get to work serving as Member of Parliament.”
PLAYBOOKERS
Birthdays: HBD to Conservative MP BLAKE RICHARDS, the indefatigable CRAIG OLIVER and Vancouver Mayor KENNEDY STEWART. Belated greetings to CATHERINE CLARK, who celebrated with her family on Saturday at gezellig.
Movers and shakers: HANEN NANAA starts a new gig as an Ontario regional adviser in the Liberal Research Bureau. … AIDAN GROVE-WHITE was promoted to director at StrategyCorp. Sussex Strategies named ERIC JOHNSON, a former Tory staffer on the Hill, its new VP of federal GR.
The Great Lakes Pilotage Authority, a crown corp that guides ships through the inland seas, hired lawyers at Emond Harnden to do collective bargaining with the company's pilots. The price tag: C$427,500.
CN filed an October meeting with ANITA ANAND and PAM DAMOFF, the two Liberals who represent Oakville, Ont. … Anand was also lobbied that month by Moderna Canada's PATRICIA GAUTHIER, who met with brand-new Procurement Minister FILOMENA TASSI only three days after her swearing-in. Also in on that one: Deputy Minister BILL MATTHEWS and ADM ARIANNE REZA.
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin's DANIEL BROCK recently signed up to rep the Fair Tax Treatment for Businesses Protecting Canadians Coalition, an alliance of insurance companies that successfully fought back against a 2013 federal plan to force companies to retroactively pay millions in sales tax. They want to maintain the policy that exempts commissions earned by agents and brokers from GST/HST.
Employment Minister CARLA QUALTROUGH set up a conflict-of-interest screen that will shield her from any chatter about People First of Canada, the "national voice of people who have been labeled with an intellectual or developmental disability." Qualtrough's husband, ERON MAIN, is involved with the organization.
Media mentions: Submissions for the 2022 Dalton Camp Award are open. (h/t HANNAH SUNG). … JAKE COSTELLO has left CBC Early Edition for CBC On the Coast. … ARIELLE PIAT-SAUVÉ has left The National to work on ROSEMARY BARTON Live … VICTORIA AHEARN is leaving CP to join Playback Online. … MERITA ILO has left CP to join The Globe and Mail.
Birthdays or other social notices for the Playbook community? Send them our way.
PROZONE
If you are a Pro subscriber, catch our Canada PM newsletter from ANDY BLATCHFORD and ZI-ANN LUM: RCMP on hunt for AI that busts encrypted data.
In other news for Pros:
— The arcane voting rule that could save Democrats’ antitrust agenda.
— COP26 strikes ‘eye candy’ side deals to keep climate talks from resulting in ‘zilch.’
— The infrastructure bill could rebuild America. Will it Build Back Better?
— U.S. lawmakers, Chinese diplomats size each other up at climate talks.
— How Trump’s deal with Moderna hampers the global vaccine effort.
TRIVIA
Friday’s answer: The Bluenose was in service for 25 years.
Gold star to BEN ROTH who answered: “The Bluenose was launched at Lunenburg March 26, 1921 and wrecked off Haiti on Jan. 28, 1946, for a total life in service of 24 years, 10 months and 3 days.” Thanks to CLAUDE ROY, who shared this link to this 1938 video of the Bluenose sailing. Of course there’s a Heritage Minute. Props to MICHAEL MACDONALD, SHEILA GERVAIS, GARY ALLEN, LEIGH LAMPERT, BOB GORDON and JOHN GUOBA.
Today’s question: This Canadian civil rights icon made history on this date in 1946. “Do your little bit of good where you are,” this person once said. “It’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
Send your answers to [email protected]
Playbook wouldn’t happen without Luiza Ch. Savage, editor Sue Allan, Zi-Ann Lum and Andy Blatchford.
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