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A daily look inside Canadian politics and power. | | | | |  | | By Zi-Ann Lum and Nick Taylor-Vaisey |
WELCOME TO OTTAWA PLAYBOOK. I'm your host, ZI-ANN LUM with NICK TAYLOR-VAISEY.
Today, our update on 24 Sussex comes with some government runaround. We have the latest on who is where this week. And we’ve asked experts how the Liberal government should be talking about inflation.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the House of Commons on Nov. 22, 2021. | Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press | SUSSING OUT 24 SUSSEX — Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU chose Rideau Cottage over 24 Sussex in 2015. Six years in, he says conversations are ongoing about the future of the neglected official residence of Canada’s prime minister. — Speaking for us all: Academic and former Trudeau adviser ROLAND PARIS tweeted: “Fix it or tear it down and rebuild it, but this national farce needs to end.” — The one thing clear: Trudeau told reporters in French that he has “no intention of living in 24 Sussex regardless of how long my mandate or mandates may be as prime minister.” The building has been neglected by generations of politicians, he said. It’s “dans un état extrêmement piètre” — in an extremely poor state. “We also have concerns about its safety,” he added. — Rewind to September: Trudeau’s flick at safety concerns took us back to our conversation with former Privy Council clerk MICHAEL WERNICK during the throes of the election — remember that? Wernick reflected on new security threats for politicians. “The price of entering political life is pretty high,” Wernick told Playbook. “My advice, specific piece of advice, to Mr. O’Toole and Mr. Singh is you cannot move into 24 Sussex. Your family will not be safe. That’s a sad thing, too.” — Review the tape: Wernick’s warning prompted us to ask the National Capital Commission (NCC) for comment at the time. The NCC told us: “From our perspective, security rests solely within the mandate of the RCMP.” We asked the RCMP: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police told us it’s their mandate to protect the PM 24/7, then kicked us to Public Services and Procurement Canada. We contacted Procurement: They then told us, no, they are not responsible for 24 Sussex. “It is under the purview of the National Capital Commission.” — Fast forward to now : Trudeau’s remark about safety prompted us to again ask the NCC: Is 24 Sussex currently habitable? A spokesperson would not explicitly say yes or no, but instead pointed to a section of a report published last year about the state of the official residence. From the NCC’s report: “The building systems at 24 Sussex Drive have reached the point of imminent or actual failure and require replacement. The age and condition of the electrical systems poses a fire hazard, and the plumbing systems have failures on a regular basis. The building has no permanent air conditioning system; window air conditioners are run in every room in the summer, which poses a security risk and is disruptive and costly. Repairs and/or upgrades are complicated due to the presence of asbestos, lead and mould throughout many of the interior finishes.” Restoration price tag: C$36 million, minimum.
| | Repairs and/or upgrades are complicated due to the presence of asbestos, lead and mould.
The National Capital Commission | | — Speaking of runarounds: Under the headline Hey, Ottawa, you made a mistake. The least you can do is own it, The Star’s ALTHIA RAJ considers the trucker policy flip flop and the 19 hours it took to correct “a late-night, last-minute reversal of a well-publicized government policy.” Potato, po-tah-to: Nineteen hours, which some clocked as long. But Trudeau told reporters Friday that the situation, in his opinion, was “quickly corrected.” — Speaking of government communication: In a weekend column, SUSAN DELACOURT asks if the pandemic will force a rewrite of playbooks. One suggestion from the Hill authority: “Information — not slogans.” THE LATEST ON UKRAINE — Foreign Affairs Minister MÉLANIE JOLY is back in Canada after a trip to Ukraine, France and Belgium to meet with high-level officials where Ukraine was on top of the agenda. Ukraine’s former president PETRO POROSHENKO wants Canada to expedite military aid to the country. He told CBC viewers on “ROSEMARY BARTON Live” Sunday, “ We have a full, open and huge Russian aggression ” and said diplomacy (“definitely yes”) can be used as a tool to mitigate escalating tensions that could lead to war. OLEG STEPANOV, Russia's Ottawa ambo, told CTV's Question Period that Joly had an "open invitation" to visit Moscow. Stepanov said the foreign minister met her counterpart, SERGEY LAVROV, last December in Stockholm — and Joly expressed an interest in making the trip. Stepanov played up her influence: “Canada is a really important and vocal player right now in NATO camp, in the situation around Ukraine.” — Further listening: MARIA POPOVA, associate professor at McGill, spoke to The Sunday Magazine about the role Canada can play in the conflict. (Stick around for the conversation with HILARY BROWN.)
| | AROUND THE HILL | | — TRUDEAU’S AGENDA: The PM and his Cabinet are scheduled to meet virtually today through Wednesday ahead of the return of the House. JOHN BRODHEAD shared news on LinkedIn that he is Trudeau’s new director of policy — taking over from MARCI SURKES. “I am looking forward to this opportunity to collaborate across sectors and orders of government to make progress on the issues Canadians most care about,” he wrote. Not by coincidence, those issues align with agenda items for the Cabinet retreat: Covid, climate change, child care and affordable housing. — AHEAD FOR ERIN O’TOOLE: The national Conservative caucus also gathers this week to plan for the session ahead. As Playbook reported last week, former MP JAMES CUMMING has wrapped up his campaign post-mortem and is ready to report. In a scene setter from Global’s ALEX BOUTILIER, MPs don’t appear to be waiting on the study. “It’s not a sustainable relationship,” one MP said of the leader and his Conservative caucus. On The Bridge,CHANTAL HÉBERT and BRUCE ANDERSON recall the “surgical strike” in 2001 when Canadian Alliance MPs abandoned STOCKWELL DAY. “I wouldn’t put it past the people who want to have this leadership review and to push O’Toole out to be slowly but surely trying to build the caucus support they need for a strike of that nature,” Hébert said. Since it’s been awhile, here’s ALTHIA RAJ in the Star on the last time Conservatives met. — Today’s agenda: O’Toole has a presser scheduled for 1:30 ET today to address “the cost of living crisis in Canada.” FAREWELL TO A GIANT — Former PM BRIAN MULRONEY paid tribute to the passing of his former speechwriter, PAUL TERRIEN . “He and I have worked together on files of historical significance. Allow me to mention the Meech Lake accord and the creation of the Francophonie summits,” the former PM said in a statement this weekend. — Remembrances: Terrien later worked as an adviser to former PM STEPHEN HARPER. His former colleague CATHERINE LOUBIER praised Terrien for teaching her the “ most important” lessons about Quebec history. Pollster and author DARREL BRICKER recalled a stint in the ‘80s working alongside Terrien : “Wonderful pen, great judgment, wry sense of humor, infectious calm in the eye of the storm.” Added former Mulroney chief of staff DAVID MACLAUGHLIN: "Wonderfully droll and politically acute writer and personality." Former Harper chief of staff IAN BRODIE (more from him below) recalled great expectations and a job well done: "Almost every story I have about Paul Terrien is me asking him to do something impossible in 15 minutes and him being happy to do it perfectly."
| | HALLWAY CONVERSATION | | With inflation dominating political debate, how should Liberals be talking about it? IAN BRODIE, former chief of staff to PM Stephen Harper, associate professor at the University of Calgary: Across the board price hikes hit every household and when paycheques aren't going up as quickly, we all get poorer. At some point, one of the political parties is going to realize what a mess we are making. I am genuinely not sure who that is going to be. ROBERT ASSELIN, former adviser to prime ministers Paul Martin and Justin Trudeau, senior VP of policy at the Business Council of Canada: There’s no doubt we’re entering a high-risk economic landscape. Both public and private debt costs are going up. The 10-year Government of Canada bond yield is now about 60 basis points higher than it was six months ago. That’s a lot in a short period of time for bond market standards. Financial markets are showing signs of unease. And more importantly, inflation expectations have risen significantly. The government must demonstrate it recognizes the serious situation that we’re in. This is no time to be complacent on economic matters. What you don’t want is for fiscal and monetary policy to go in opposite directions and create more risks for policy errors. — Meanwhile in Washington: As inflation continues to spike, many are wondering what’s to blame: the pandemic or policy? “It is the case that supply disruptions are leading to higher inflation in many places, including in large developing economies like India and Brazil and in developed ones like the euro area. … But some economists point out that even as inflation proves pervasive around the globe, it has been more pronounced in America than elsewhere,” NYT’s Jeanna Smialek and Ana Swanson write. (h/t POLITICO Playbook)
| | TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS | | — Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU's itinerary notes a virtual child-care announcement with Nunavut Premier P.J. AKEEAGOK and Nunavut Minister of Education PAMELA GROSS. Trudeau cabmins KARINA GOULD and DAN VANDAL will join in. — Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND's itinerary features one item: Cabinet retreat.
| | HOUSE BUSINESS | | 2:30 p.m. The House finance committee is back with a witness lineup that includes Scotiabank chief economist JEAN-FRANÇOIS PERRAULT, National Right to Housing Network’s SAHAR RAZA and VÉRONIQUE LAFLAMME of the Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain. Behind closed doors: The following subcommittees on agenda and procedure meet today: government operations and estimates (11:30 a.m.); natural resources (2:30 p.m.); and national defense (2:30 p.m.)
| | PAPER TRAIL | | The Canadian Food Inspection Agency wants Canadians to weigh in on “a proposed change to the size of diced white potatoes sold in cans” … and former CPC leader ANDREW SCHEER answered the call with some personal potato ponderings: “ Is there something to fear from diversity in potato sizes? Should we really fear the unfettered potato market?”
| | MEDIA ROOM | | — The Globe’s KELLY GRANT has kicked off a year-long look into health care in Nunavut with a feature on Inuit elders who must travel thousands of miles away to access long-term care. — From JOHN WOODSIDE in National Observer: Jane Fonda brings star power to Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance. — The Logic’s DAVID REEVELY and MURAD HEMMADI look at 2021 in lobbying with analysis of 22,766 communication reports. — Missing from Treasury Board’s latest report on Access to Information was a section about who uses the Act, so DEAN BEEBY looked into the raw data and reports the finding on his blog. — On the latest edition of Hub Dialogues, DAVID FRUM and SEAN SPEER talk about the differences between the way Canada and the U.S. have responded to Covid-19.
| | PLAYBOOKERS | | Birthdays: Queen’s University chancellor MURRAY SINCLAIR celebrates a birthday today. The former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission served in the Senate from 2016 to 2021. “Getting to the truth is hard, but achieving reconciliation will be harder,” he said in his first speech in the Senate. “To achieve it, we in Canada must all work together.” Here are his remarks to the Queen’s community on Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Birthdays or other social notices for the Playbook community? Send them our way.
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| Anniversaries: POLITICO is 15! To celebrate, here’s an oral history of when the upstart publication arrived on Capitol Hill. Check out the first edition of Playbook, which debuted in June 2007. POLITICO used today’s milestone to ask 16 future-minded thinkers to predict where journalism will be in 15 years. DAVE COURNOYER just celebrated the 17th anniversary of Daveberta.ca, a blogspot that quickly became a must-read in Alberta. “It was a golden age of blog aggregators and RSS feeds,” he noted of the long ago launch. “No Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Web links were king.” Spotted: U.S. Ambassador DAVID COHEN keeping on top of his Canadian homework with a “terrific conversation” with Environment Minister STEVEN GUILBEAULT. Sen. PAULA SIMONS on an unofficial mission to find Alberta's most iconic song.“Not necessarily Alberta's best song, but the song that most speaks to us as Albertans.” … Sen. KAREN SORENSEN, making tracks in the mountains after a week on Zoom. “Take care of your mental health,” she tweeted. JOCELYN FORMSMA, executive director of the National Association of Friendship Centres, sharing her meeting with Captain Marvel, aka ROBERT BONDAR. MP ALISTAIR MACGREGOR, recovering from Covid. Proposal from historian J.D.M. STEWART: “Maybe they should make a separate twittersphere just for the Wordle-ites.” Question from ALEX WELLSTEAD: “What are 5 albums that you don’t have to skip a single song?” (Answers from ALEX BALLINGALL, CHRISTOPHER NARDI, DAN RALPH and others in the replies to his tweet.) Reflection from MP MATTHEW GREEN: On Twitter and “authenticity as an MP online.” Movers and shakers: SCOTT REID, ARTHUR MILNES and SCOTTY GREENWOOD, out with the second edition of With Faith and Goodwill: Chronicling the Canada-U.S. Friendship. Media mentions: CBC is searching for a director of Indigenous policy. Farewells: SUSAN SCOTTI has retired from the Business Council of Canada where she served as executive VP after a long career in the senior ranks of federal government. “Susan has been an unwavering source of wise counsel, not only to me and JOHN MANLEY as Council CEOs, but to four successive Board Chairs and a generation of Canadian business leaders,” GOLDY HYDER wrote in tribute.
| | PROZONE | | For s, here’s our lookahead memo via ANDY BLATCHFORD: This week: Getting ready for ‘lift off.’ With the House set to return, check out our Pro Analysis — a guide to all the moving parts in the next session of Parliament. In other headlines for Pros :
— Google moves to dismiss latest multistate antitrust suit.
— Biden Interior surpasses Trump in drilling permits issued in first year.
— Dueling Senate alliances emerge ahead of Biden solar tariffs decision.
— Scientists say carbon capture credit betrays Canada’s climate goals.
— Three takeaways from the House Bitcoin mining hearing.
| | ALSO FOR YOUR RADAR | | LAST CALL — Playbook’s second virtual trivia night is THURSDAY at 8 p.m. Eastern. Just a couple tables left to reserve. RSVP at ottawaplaybook@politico.com. We'll send you instructions on how to set yourselves up for the night — and, maybe, #cdnpoli trivia supremacy!
| | TRIVIA | | Friday's answer: Thirty years ago aboard the space shuttle Discovery, ROBERTA BONDAR became the first Canadian woman in space. “For me, being the first was not about breaking records. It was the idea that there was somebody who represented strength and valor and bravery,” Bondar told PIYA CHATTOPADHYAY on CBC Radio’s The Sunday Magazine. Props to CAROL STATEN, FATIMA SYED, ETHEL FORESTER, LAURIE MACE, BRAM ABRAMSON, SHEILA GERVAIS, J.D.M. STEWART, HARRY MCKONE, ANDREW SZENDE, WALTER ROBINSON, RODDY MCFALL, MICHAEL MACDONALD, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, DOUG SWEET, JOHN ECKER, LEIGH LAMPERT, NICK MASCIANTONIO, JOHN GUOBA, GARY ALLEN, GEORGE YOUNG, CULLY ROBINSON, JOHN DILLON and BOB GORDON. Today’s question: This week, we’ll focus on the rookies in the House. Of the 49 newly elected MPs, who said: “I’m a little bit less rubber-chicken dinner and a little bit more giving out packages of chicken to those who need it.” Send your answers to ottawaplaybook@politico.com Playbook wouldn’t happen without Luiza Ch. Savage and Sue Allan. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness amongst this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Alejandra Waase to find out how: awaase@politico.com. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |  |
