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A daily look inside Canadian politics and power. | | | | |  | | By Nick Taylor-Vaisey | Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Nick l Follow Politico Canada Welcome to the Ottawa Playbook. I'm your host, Nick Taylor-Vaisey with Zi-Ann Lum. Tonight, we celebrate political geekery with our third virtual trivia night. But we have a lot to talk about before then: Tory leadership rules, a former diplomat's take on how to tame Russian aggression, and the colorful Philly backstory of U.S. Ambassador DAVID COHEN.
|  | Driving the Day | | RULES OF THE RACE — On Wednesday, the Tories' leadership election organizing committee published the all-important ground rules for what should be a heated campaign with non-stop drama. Playbook combed through the document so you don't have to. — 6 months: That's how long potential candidates have to be party members on the day they apply in order to qualify for the race. Applications close on April 19. Anyone who wasn't a member as far back as October 19, 2021 is out of the running — unless they receive a written waiver from the nomination committee. — 500: That's how many party members need to sign a candidate's application in order for it to be valid. The signatures need to come from at least 30 ridings and seven provinces or territories. And no last-minute party members can add their names. Only those who've been members for at least three weeks at the time of submission will count. — C$7 million: That's the spending limit per candidate. — C$200,000: The hefty registration fee ups the ante for contesting the ballot. NEXT MAN UP — No one will confirm it on the record, but people who know the people behind PATRICK BROWN's not-a-Tory-leadership-campaign say an official launch of his bid is coming this weekend. Playbook asked GARY COLLINS , Brown's comms director at city hall, what the mayor is up to on Saturday and Sunday. "I have no details on the mayor’s agenda," he said. "I see many municipal meetings and events over the next few days." Okay, then. — Running the show: At the moment, FRED DELOREY is Brown's campaign manager. DeLorey ran ERIN O'TOOLE 's victorious run for the party leadership in 2020, and served as national campaign director during the Tories' less successful federal election last summer. — Baggage check: Brown's prospects were buoyed by news of a settlement he'd reached with CTV News over a bombshell story that briefly ended his political career. When Brown was Ontario PC leader in 2018, the network published two explosive allegations of sexual misconduct featuring two different women. Most of Brown's senior staff resigned the same night, when he also stepped down as leader. He denied the allegations and later sued the network for C$8 million. — The correction: CTV appended an update to the original story on Wednesday. "Key details provided to CTV for the story were factually incorrect and required correction," it reads. "CTV National News regrets including those details in the story and any harm this may have caused to Mr. Brown." Worth noting: No money exchanged hands as part of the settlement, finalized days before Brown's likely jump back into federal politics. — Betting odds: Policy Options editor-in-chief LES PERREAUX handicaps JEAN CHAREST's chances of winning the Tory crown. PAUL WELLS offers the other side of the argument in Maclean's. — Also: Ontario MPP ROMAN BABER is running. "I am grateful to my team and the hundreds of supporters who joined us in North York tonight," he tweeted late Wednesday. PARTY TIME — Covid lockdowns and convoy shutdowns made a mess of Ottawa's fledgling social scene. It all added up to a cocktail short-circuit. But all that pent-up demand is about to explode, as SARAH CHOWN explains it. The Met's managing partner says the phone has been ringing off the hook with bookings. Caution be damned. People are ready to party. — Receptions, receptions, receptions: The Met is a magnet for politicos and everyone who wants to be seen with politicos. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are busiest when the House and Senate are sitting. Chown says she expects to have the place booked out those nights right through to June. — Caution to the wind: Playbook asked if any of the lobby groups who want the space are asking about precautions. The answer was no. Is anyone reluctant to dip their toes into in-person events? Again, no. "The only questions I've heard about Covid are what the rules are, because people don't know," says Chown. — Budget night: The Met always hosts a packed house on the finance minister's big day. Chown blocks off a couple of weeks well in advance, and warns clients their special night could be preempted by specialer programming. For what it's worth, Chown has her eye on April for the budget night extravaganza. — The first big bash: Circle your calendars for Wednesday, March 23. That's when a cabal of GR firms in town is teaming up to throw a fundraiser for Met staff who've had their paychecks brutally disrupted — first by the virus, then by a persistent group of angry truckers and their friends. Hill + Knowlton's JOHN DELACOURT gave Playbook the details. Most of the big firms in town will split the night's catering costs. Delacourt says it "snowballed" almost immediately after he put out feelers. Sponsors include the likes of PROOF, EARNSCLIFFE, COMPASS ROSE, CRESTVIEW, GLOBAL PUBLIC AFFAIRS, COUNSEL, SANDSTONE GROUP, SUMMA, NAVIGATOR, BLACKBIRD and RUBICON. Delacourt expects more co-sponsors today. MONA FORTIER and YASIR NAQVI are also boosters. Are you Chrystia Freeland? Do you know when the budget will be tabled? Tell us!
| | EXIT INTERVIEWS | | | 
Blais left the public service after more than 25 years. | Photo courtesy of Louise Blais | ON THE OUTSIDE — LOUISE BLAIS spent 26 years in Canada's foreign service, with stints in Washington, Tokyo and Paris. At the height of NAFTA renegotiations, she was consul general in Atlanta. She also worked at the UN delegation for more than three years — including during the failed bid for a Security Council seat. Blais left government earlier this year. She's now consulting for the U.S.-based Pendleton Group and tweeting a lot — an abrupt departure from the cautious voice of a hardened diplomat. Blais chatted with Playbook for an exit interview. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Why did you leave the diplomatic corps? You reach a point where sometimes, not always, you can actually maybe be more effective outside of government for different reasons. There's more freedom of action. And when you build a sphere of influence, you can continue to advance the same values, but in a different context. So that's why, as you see, I'm very vocal. It wasn't easy. Because you give up things. You give up that access, you give up potentially another ambassadorship. But I feel very comfortable with my decision. What do you want to work on next? What I'm very passionate about is how can North America adapt to the new world order, both from a political perspective and an economic one. We have built our economy in a way that is very, very exposed to political pressure from actors that may not share the same values we do. So we have to do a rethink. We focused a lot on China having become the number one partner of the African continent. What is actually also happening is that China has made enormous inroads in the Caribbean, Latin America, Central America. And we have to ask ourselves, is this in our interest? Do we need to start to look at a more benevolent Monroe Doctrine for the 21st century? You worked at the UN with Bob Rae. He's been quite outspoken since Russia invaded Ukraine. How do you rate his performance? Bob Rae is the right ambassador at the right time. He came in after the defeat for the Security Council seat, which obviously was something to process and absorb and acknowledge. He came in without having the baggage of the campaign, which is significant. When you're running that kind of campaign, it gets personal. You know the people casting the vote. It's not like a federal election campaign with hundreds of thousands of voters. These are people you know. It's like running for class president, basically. He alone can have the latitude that he has. Obviously, he consults with government, with PMO. He is able to straddle a line, because he knows he has that trust. They listen to him in Ottawa. And it's working. He has galvanized interest in Canada. He's presenting a very strong stance — not very Canadian in a way. He's using words and saying things that are, I think, channeling Canadians. You've called for a UN-led mission that could ease hostilities in Ukraine. How would that work? The idea of having a UN-led mission, or a coalition under the UN flag or approval, I think would go a long way to avoid a direct NATO/Russian confrontation. It would make it more difficult for Russia to indiscriminately bomb, because it could be hitting UN representatives. The goal would be protection of civilians. That's what the UN peacekeeping and peacebuilding processes are all about. Everyone's assuming that Russia would use its veto, and that would be the end of it. That's a misconception. The Russian Federation got a pass two weeks ago, when the other countries around the table let them use the veto on a conflict that they were directly involved in. The UN Charter specifies that you should abstain if you're directly privy to the conflict at hand. Is Canada the country to pitch this kind of mission? I think it would be a perfect thing for Canada to do. I think it'd be better if it came out from a country that's not on the Security Council. It'd be great to have this come out of the General Assembly. I think Bob has the reputation to carry something forward. I think our team at the UN is stellar, some of the best diplomats I know.
| | ALSO FOR YOUR RADAR | | ORIGIN STORY — Environment Minister STEVEN GUILBEAULT returned to Hogtown and kicked off a Canadian Club Toronto event Wednesday with a joke about his infamous Greenpeace stunt from 2001. “Many of you have probably seen the environmental satire, Don't Look Up . Well, since I climbed the CN Tower, my motto is, Don't look down,” Guilbeault told the business crowd, which included the likes of LISA RAITT and NAVDEEP BAINS in the audience. —On the inside: Guilbeault shared a yarn about how the government's “Enhanced Climate Plan ” came to be — a rare glimpse into Cabinet's inner workings. He said at the beginning of the pandemic, Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU asked ministers “who were less involved with having to deal with Covid on a day-to-day basis” what they would do after the pandemic. "How do we rebuild? What does our recovery plan look like?" Guilbeault said a trio of ministers started the convo: CATHERINE MCKENNA (infrastructure), JONATHAN WILKINSON (environment), and himself at heritage. “The Prime Minister basically asked us, ‘Can we make this a green recovery plan?' And so the three of us started working very informally. It wasn't even a formal Cabinet committee … eventually, you know, someone else said, ‘Hey, I want to be part of this group.' And by the end of it … about half of Cabinet was part of our informal working group, which led to what became the Enhanced Climate Plan, which was presented at the end of 2021.”
| | PAPER TRAIL | | PHILLY'S MAN IN CANADA — The Wilson Center is hosting U.S. Ambassador DAVID COHEN's first major public appearance since he presented his credentials to Governor General MARY SIMON late last year. At noon, Cohen will talk up the year-old "Roadmap for a Renewed Canada-U.S. Partnership" with counterpart ambo KIRSTEN HILLMAN. The Hill crowd might remember Cohen as a telecom executive at Comcast and powerhouse fundraiser for big-name Democrats. But he was also chief of staff to then-Philadelphia mayor ED RENDELL when that city was fighting a major budget crisis in the '90s. Investigative journalist BUZZ BISSINGER followed Rendell and Cohen closely for those four years, gaining access to countless meetings during a tense time in the mayor's office. He eventually wrote a book about it called "Prayer for the City." Bissinger whipped up vignettes you won't see in Cohen's official bio. The book opens with a tone-setting three-line conversation between the mayor and his right-hand man. — Cohen: "That was interesting. And totally useless."
— Rendell: "Like most meetings."
— Cohen: "No. Most meetings aren't interesting." — On messes: "Less than twenty-four hours before the new job became his and the grace of speculation gave way to crisis, David L. Cohen was ensconced in a suite of offices on the second floor of City Hall doing what he always seemed to be doing: sorting out the mess that had been unceremoniously handed to him by someone else. He was quite brilliant at it." — On working: "He luxuriated in work, but from that very first Sunday in January, when he had moved in, it was apparent that the job would require a capacity for workaholic self-abuse and self-imposed torture far exceeding that which had defined his life as a lawyer." — The not-so-nice adjectives to describe Cohen: bloodless prick, head henchman, boy wonder
| | TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS | | — Before you woke up, Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU and Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND met for breakfast with German President FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIE. They then took off for Warsaw, Poland. 8:30 a.m. Trudeau's national security and intelligence adviser, JODY THOMAS, will join Communications Security Establishment chief SHELLY BRUCE and Foreign Affairs DM MARTA MORGAN on a panel at the CGAI conference. Moderator: RICHARD FADDEN. 9 a.m. The parliamentary budget officer publishes a new report on the government's expenditure plan and main estimates. 10 a.m. Nine new heads of mission will present their credentials at Rideau Hall. The nations: KIRIBATI, TONGA, SOUTH SUDAN, COMOROS, MAURITANIA, BENIN, BOTSWANA, NAMIBIA and LUXEMBOURG. 12 p.m. The Canadian Club Toronto is hosting a virtual panel on the energy transition moderated by RBC's JOHN STACKHOUSE. Panelists include Fort Nelson First Nation Chief SHARLEEN GALE, Linamar CEO LINDA HASENFRATZ and TransAlta President and CEO JOHN KOUSINIORIS. 12:30 p.m. SVIATLANA TSIKHANOUSKAYA, Belarus’s opposition leader in exile, will participate virtually at the CGAI conference. 1 p.m. NDP leader JAGMEET SINGH is in Port Moody, B.C. He'll hold a press conference outside Eagle Ridge Hospital. 2 p.m. Singh and MP BONITA ZARRILLO host a roundtable with healthcare workers. 3:30 p.m. Chief of the Defense Staff Gen. WAYNE EYRE will address the CGIA gathering. 4 p.m. Singh meets with Vancouver mayor KENNEDY STEWART . 9 p.m. JEAN CHAREST launches his bid for the Tory leadership at Wild Rose Brewery in Calgary. 9:15 p.m. Singh and MP LAUREL COLLINS host a telephone town hall.
| | On the Hill | | — 2:30 p.m. The House finance committee meets behind closed doors to draft its report on pre-budget consultations.
| | ASK US ANYTHING | | TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW — What are you hearing that you need Playbook to know? Send it all our way.
| | MEDIA ROOM | | — DEAN BEEBY flags a win for disclosure in this report from the Office of the Information Commissioner: “The department must disclose the processing history of individual immigration files, and no longer claim the info could facilitate the commission of an offence.” — The latest edition of the ARC Energy Research pod considers the war in Ukraine and the fallout it is having on global energy markets. — The Curse of Politics panel discusses where U.N. Ambassador BOB RAE fits with Canada’s response to the Ukraine crisis. — APTN’s SARA CONNORS explains why Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation Chief DANA TIZYA-TRAMM is sounding the alarm on an incident last week featuring “quicksand at minus 40” on a Yukon ice road.
| | PROZONE | | For s, here’s our Pro Canada PM memo:Trudeau: 'A wake-up call to all of us.’ In other headlines for Pros: — Stoltenberg: 'New normal' forces NATO rethink.
— Canada touts clean energy fix for Europe’s energy woes.
— How Ukraine is wielding crypto, Big Tech, social media and a volunteer hacker army against Russia.
— Trump’s Truth Social fails to make a splash in MAGA-world.
— How the tricky politics of a Russian oil ban roiled Washington in 100 hours.
— Health experts plead with Biden to 'reverse course' in global pandemic response.
| | Playbookers | | Birthdays: HBD to former PM KIM CAMPBELL … Conservative MP JAKE STEWART is 44 today … Harper-era Cabinet minister GARY GOODYEAR also celebrates … Former MP CHRIS AXWORTHY is 75. HBD+1 to BERNARD BLAIS, father to LOUISE, who turned 93 yesterday. Spotted: Retired lieutenant-general and former MP ANDREW LESLIE, floating the idea that Canada's military procurement system is the worst in the world. SAHIR KHAN, an expert on all things fiscal, diagnosing the brokenness … CBC's TRAVIS DHANRAJ, questioning the need for Cabinet ministers to travel overseas and accusing them of being in Europe for the photo-ops ( RIP his mentions) … Foreign Minister MÉLANIE JOLY, tweeting a staged photo-op at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. Hockey star ALEX OVECHKIN, still posing beside VLADIMIR PUTIN in his Instagram profile pic (h/t CBC's The Buzzer) … ADAM MIRON, preaching patience. PM JUSTIN TRUDEAU making a surprise (pre-recorded) video cameo at the Toronto premiere of “Turning Red” with shout outs to DOMEE SHI, SANDRA OH and MAITREYI RAMAKRISHNAN. Movers and shakers: The Canadian Canola Growers Association lobbied Indy MP KEVIN VUONG, the first time Playbook has spotted Vuong in the lobbyist registry … Rubicon's JONATHAN MOSER is lobbying for Westshore Terminals, "Canada’s busiest coal export terminal" … Former Hill staffer KRISTINA MARTIN is repping PLATO Testing, which trains Indigenous people to become experts in software testing. JANET SILVER has jumped from iPolitics to Syntax Strategic , where the former managing editor is the new director of advocacy and communications.
| | TRIVIA | | Wednesday’s answer: The first Chinese-Canadian MP was DOUGLAS JUNG. Props to BOB GORDON, BOOTS VAISEY, MICHAEL SUNG, NICK MASCIANTONIO, ALAN KAN, JOHN GUOBA, SCOTT LOHNES, ANNE-MARIE STACEY, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, SHEILA GERVAIS, LEIGH LAMPERT, HARRY MCKONE, and STEPHEN HARRIS. Thursday’s question: What former prime minister’s memoir starts with Ecclesiastes, 9:11? Send your answers to ottawaplaybook@politico.com
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