THEY'RE BAAAAAAAACK — Can you feel the anticipation? Everyone's flying back to the capital for the opening of the next session of Parliament. All the action today is in the House of Commons, where MPs will elect their Speaker. Until recently it sounded like there could be drama. Everyone in the parliamentary precinct now has to be vaccinated, and an unknown number of Tories were rumored to be holdouts. Their leader, ERIN O'TOOLE, now says everyone in his flock is vaxxed or has an exemption. So every seat will likely be filled without exception. — The next Speaker: Seven candidates will vie for the speakership. The returning champ, Liberal ANTHONY ROTA, hopes for another term. Two of his assistant deputies want the job: Liberal ALEXANDRA MENDÈS and New Democrat CAROL HUGHES. A trio of Tories are in the running: CHRIS D'ENTREMONT, MARC DALTON and JÖEL GODIN (who's run before). And Green MP ELIZABETH MAY, noted procedural nerd, rounds out the field. This isn't the first time the former Green leader has considered the gig. "It interests me," she told CBC News in 2019. "It would be wrong to say it hasn't interested me for a very long time." — What will LOUIS PLAMONDON say? The dean of the House of Commons runs the election of the Speaker. Plamondon, first elected as a Progressive Conservative MP in 1984 before jumping to the Bloc Québécois in 1990, has won 12 times in a row. When he presided over the Speaker election in 2019, Plamondon offered some advice to rookies in the Commons. He recalled that two of his earliest statements as a new MP contradicted the PC platform. At Plamondon's first caucus meeting, a senator pulled him aside. "He told me to look at the wall, where a magnificent stuffed fish was mounted. He told me that had the fish kept its mouth shut, it would still be alive." If the 78-year-old veteran has more advice to dispense today, we're all ears. — All eyes on Tuesday: That's when the action turns to the Senate, where Governor General MARY MAY SIMON will read the Speech from the Throne. Stay tuned for more on what we're watching for there in tomorrow's Playbook. — A few more scenesetters: New Parliament opens looking a lot like the old one, facing same issues (The Canadian Press).
Liberals open to deal-making as MPs gather in House of Commons for the first time since June (The Globe and Mail). What We’re Watching: Welcome, 44th Parliament! (iPolitics). FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — There's a new lobbying firm on the Hill. KEVIN BOSCH and NARESH RAGHUBEER are joining forces with DOUG THOMAS to form the Sandstone Group. They bring a ton of experience to their own shop: Bosch is a longtime Liberal political operative who knows every corner of the precinct. He'll stay on as an associate with Hill+Knowlton Strategies. Raghubeer worked in shipbuilding for Davie and at the Senate as a director of policy and parliamentary affairs on national security and defense issues. Thomas served for 28 years as national director for the Navy League of Canada. — What's in a name: Centre Block's facade is made out of Nepean sandstone. Queen's Park in Toronto? Sandstone. It's literally the foundation of politics. SPOTTED — Unifor boss JERRY DIAS and retired senior trade negotiator STEVE VERHEUL hung out Saturday night at Luxe in the ByWard Market. The duo was instrumental in high-stakes NAFTA renegotiations at the height of Trump-fueled anxiety — Verheul as the even-tempered lead negotiator, and Dias as a rather less diplomatic attack dog. Back in 2019, Dias told your Playbook author about their dynamic in an interview for Maclean's . “He was completely transparent with me. There was no holding back,” Dias said of Verheul at the time. “We would talk about when it would make the most sense for me to lead with my chin at the press conferences. He was mainly the guy who was loading the gun. I was firing the bullets.” A TRAGIC FAREWELL — Only a few days after leaving hospital to recover from a severe case of Covid, Sen. JOSÉE FOREST-NIESING died in Sudbury. Senate Speaker GEORGE FUREY announced the news on Saturday. Forest-Niesing, who was 56 and fully vaccinated, suffered from a chronic lung condition. Her final press release, distributed just last Tuesday, reassured Canadians that vaccines are effective tools against Covid, and she was more vulnerable to the disease. In a release, Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU said Forest-Niesing, whom he'd appointed to the Senate, "passionately defended and promoted access to justice and public services in both official languages as well as in sign language, including for Indigenous communities." NOTES FROM HALIFAX — POLITICO's ANDY BLATCHFORD caught up with key players on the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum over the weekend. He tracked down Sen. JIM RISCH, the top GOP lawmaker on the Senate foreign relations committee; Lt.-Gen. WAYNE EYRE, Canada's acting chief of the defense staff; ROLAND PARIS, a former foreign affairs advisor to JUSTIN TRUDEAU; and former Aussie PM MALCOLM TURNBULL. Here are key takeaways from those conversations: — Electric vehicles: Risch said Trudeau's vocal opposition to a proposed tax incentive for American-made EVs — a measure that has Canada's auto industry on high alert — made a difference in Washington. "The prime minister, for want of a better phrase, set them straight," Risch said. “That visit by Trudeau was very, very helpful in moving the dialogue in the right direction on that very narrow tax issue.” Risch said Senate Democrats are giving the proposal a second thought. “We shouldn't do this to Canada,” he said. “I don't want to do this to Canada, my colleagues don't want to do this to Canada.” Pros can read the rest of Andy's story. — Huawei: Andy also asked Risch about Huawei, the Chinese telecom that Canada hasn't so far banned from building some of the country's 5G infrastructure. Risch scored facetime with Trudeau last week, and pressured the PM to make a move. “One of the things I stressed to him, which he did not push back on, was the fact that the Huawei issue needs to be resolved sooner rather than later,” he said. “The other four of the Five Eyes have all jumped on board on that. And all over the world, people have jumped on board.” Pros can read the rest of Andy's reporting on that story, including comments from Democratic Sen. CHRIS COONS. — Recruitment: In a wide-ranging interview, Eyre said Canada's military ranks took a hit during the pandemic, shrinking by about 2,700. But he was most concerned by the number of personnel who were not simply enlisted, but trained up for service. "If we take a look at our trained effective strength — those who have gone through their basic training and reach what we call an operational functional point and are employable — the shortfall between what our establishment is and what we actually have is about 7,500," he said. "We've got many more in the training pipeline who are unemployable at this time. It's going to take a while to build those numbers back up." — Shifting north: Eyre spoke to the impact of a warming climate on military priorities. It's no secret major powers have their eyes on the Arctic. "We're seeing ourselves much more focused on the North," he said, "as climate change makes that part of our country more accessible, as we have questions about securing long-term sovereignty." — Invisible MPs: With today's return of Parliament and continued reluctance to travel due to Covid, it's perhaps not surprising few MPs showed up in Halifax. But Paris still noted their absence. "It's regrettable that there aren't more members of Parliament of all parties taking advantage of the opportunity to meet their counterparts from other countries and participate in discussions of some of the most pressing security issues of the day." SPOTTED IN HALIFAX — Andy's notable sightings included former Liberal cabinet minister (and proud Nova Scotian) SCOTT BRISON; former Tory cabinet minister (and proud Nova Scotian) PETER MACKAY; JACQUELINE O'NEILL, Canada's ambassador for women, peace, and security; Canadian senator and longtime global summit sherpa PETER BOEHM; Canadian American Business Council CEO SCOTTY GREENWOOD (who was everywhere last week); ambassador to the U.S. KIRSTEN HILLMAN; former Ukrainian President PETRO POROSHENKO; American diplomat CINDY MCCAIN; Russian opposition politician VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA; and SABRINA SAQEB , a former Afghan Member of Parliament. MINDERS OF THE PURSE — We're still awaiting word on membership of most Cabinet committees that power the work of the front bench, but the oldest of them all is now set. An order-in-council set the membership of the Treasury Board, led by President MONA FORTIER. This is the gang that approves spending and acts as the employer for hundreds of thousands of public servants. Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU appointed the committee's vice-chair: HELENA JACZEK, the economic development minister for southern Ontario. Jaczek isn't a newbie to the inner workings of government, having been Ontario's minister of community services before serving a stint in health and long-term care. She also chaired KATHLEEN WYNNE 's Cabinet for its final six months, and ran federally in 2019 against Liberal powerhouse-turned-indy candidate JANE PHILPOTT. — The rest of the crew: The order-in-council posted online filled out the rest of the membership: Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND, Housing Minister AHMED HUSSEN, Fisheries Minister JOYCE MURRAY and Revenue Minister DIANNE LEBOUTHILLIER. Freeland gets an automatic posting here, and Murray, who held Fortier's role for much of 2019, also returns to the team. Jackzek, Hussen and Lebouthillier replace BARDISH CHAGGER, who was dumped from Cabinet; JONATHAN WILKINSON , the natural resources minister who is now an alternate on the committee — and whose name will likely be prominent elsewhere on the roster of Cabinet committees; and CATHERINE MCKENNA, who left government altogether. — The alternates: Quorum for a meeting of the Treasury Board is three. If certain ministers can't attend or have conflicts of interest, alternates can step in. They'll include Fortier's predecessor, Health Minister JEAN-YVES DUCLOS; Immigration Minister SEAN FRASER; Employment Minister CARLA QUALTROUGH; Trade Minister MARY NG; Northern Affairs Minister DAN VANDAL; Rural Economic Development Minister GUDIE HUTCHINGS and Tourism Minister RANDY BOISSONNAULT. — What's next: The rest of the Cabinet committees should be set in the near future. Top of the list is the executive committee chaired by Trudeau, styled as "agenda, results and communications." Before the election, the executive committee included JIM CARR — who's no longer in Cabinet — as well as MÉLANIE JOLY, DOMINIC LEBLANC, CARLA QUALTROUGH, PABLO RODRIGUEZ, Freeland and Hussen. GRIEF IN BEAUTIFUL B.C. — Rain is in the forecast this week, unwelcome news in British Columbia where the province continues to be under a state of emergency. A month’s volume of rain fell during a 24-hour period last week that flooded communities, washed out roadways and triggered mudslides that displaced nearly 18,000 people. Conservative MP ED FAST has represented the riding of Abbotsford since 2006. He tells ZI-ANN LUM the extreme weather has created a crisis unlike anything he’s ever seen — including the time a warm front and rain suddenly melted a heavy snowpack and produced a flood in the early ‘90s. This one was strictly rain, he said. It overwhelmed the area’s defenses and dike system. The latest resilience test in a series of resilience tests. — Worst crisis “by far” : “We've had layer upon layer upon layer of crises this year alone. We were still in the middle of a pandemic,” Fast said during a call from Abbotsford. “I cannot recall a time in my life — and I'm 66 — when so many disasters have conspired to make life incredibly difficult for residents.” — The next big challenge : Manure pits spread across Sumas Prairie, a low-lying rural region east of Abbotsford, have been washed over by floodwaters. Fast called it a long-term public health issue. “The water is becoming highly contaminated. And the carcasses of animals in that water exacerbates that problem,” he said. “This flood challenge is long from being over at least.” — Big country challenges : Supply chain issues, public health concerns, property damage, long-term agricultural impacts and loss of life make the emergency in B.C. a dynamic situation. And as Parliament resumes today, Fast said coordination is key because the crisis touches so many departments including agriculture, infrastructure, national defense, environment, public safety and transportation. — Act now, politics later : “This emergency is so large that it does require a large team approach,” the Abbotsford MP tells Playbook. Conservatives won’t hinder the government’s emergency response during an active situation, he said. “We aren't gonna stand in your way. And we're not going to criticize. But there's probably some issues that are going to have to be addressed after the fact that could improve emergency response going forward.” | 
