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A daily look inside Canadian politics and power. | | | | |  | | By Nick Taylor-Vaisey, Sue Allan and Andy Blatchford | Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Nick | Follow Politico Canada WELCOME TO OTTAWA PLAYBOOK. I'm your host, Nick Taylor-Vaisey, with Sue Allan and Andy Blatchford. We start with a total bombshell of a story. Hill-shaking news that could reset the parliamentary agenda for years to come. Next up, SEAMUS O'REGAN on his stake in the rail dispute crippling cross-border trade. Then, the Coles Notes on JEAN CHAREST's interview with Andy. Also! POLITICO's GRAHAM LANKTREE brings news of Canada-U.K. trade talks. Did someone forward Ottawa Playbook to you today? Are you ready to be a forwarder, not a forwardee? Click here to sign up to this free newsletter .
|  | Driving the Day | | HOLY CRAP — The Tories have whined and moaned for months about a Liberal-NDP coalition. ERIN O'TOOLE went on and on about it. Almost everybody who wasn't a Conservative scoffed at them for harping on what seemed like an imaginary deal that never coalesced. Until it did. — A very big deal: CBC scoopmeister VASSY KAPELOSbroke the news late Monday that New Democrats and Liberals have a tentative confidence-and-supply agreement — not technically a coalition, because the NDP isn't actually governing, but it's everything but. The NDP caucus was still considering the proposal late Monday. The deal reportedly ensures the minority Liberals will remain in power until 2025 — plenty of time to get big things done with a majority-esque term. Oh, and just in case they want a new leader for a post-JUSTIN TRUDEAU era, they have time for that, too. — What's in it for the NDP: Not Cabinet seats or anything of the sort. But Kapelos reports the party will see progress on pharmacare and dental care, a pair of perennial priorities they've lambasted the Liberals for not legislating. — The backstory: Way back in October, STEPHEN MAHER wrote in Maclean's that the two parties were "mulling" a deal . Maher reported that a three-year deal was on the table. Turns out his sources were bang on, if premature. — Insta-comment from an NDP'er: Playbook asked Bluesky Strategy Group's CAM HOLMSTROM, a former Hill staffer for the orange team, for his first thoughts on the apparent deal. "I’ll wait to see the full details to pass judgment, but if it is as reported, this is a big achievement for JAGMEET SINGH and team. This would build right on top of their approach of “making Parliament work for Canadians” and would fit with getting results in a minority parliament." — Live from CPC HQ: "God help us all," tweeted CANDICE BERGEN. — PIERRE POILIEVRE has entered the chat. — The next election frame: "This likely guarantees the next federal election will be a ‘change’ election — after 10 full years of a Trudeau government," tweeted JAMES MOORE . "The importance of the Conservative leadership race can’t be overstated." — CBC's KATHLEEN PETTY asks a key question: "If you’re running for #cpcldr with the expectation a federal election might come within a year or so after the race is decided — do you rethink your interest in the job?" — For the climate: Prof KATHRYN HARRISON says stability is crucial. “It’s a hugely important time to have climate policy certainty as Canada adopts key regs and solidifies carbon pricing over the next 2-3 years.” — And so much more: Former PMO ad guy DAN ARNOLD, Globe columnist ANDREW COYNE , Charest booster TASHA KHEIRIDDIN, democracy thinker DAVID MOSCROP,
| | HALLWAY CONVERSATION | | O'REGAN AT THE TABLE — Labor Minister SEAMUS O’REGAN insists a mediated settlement is the best way to resolve the shutdown of CP Rail. “This is a roller coaster ride,” O’Regan told POLITICO in an interview from Calgary where federal mediators have joined negotiations between Canadian Pacific Railway and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference. Canada’s ranchers, grain growers and fertilizer manufacturers are urging the federal government to step in and end the shutdown. “We only have a one- to two-week buffer of feed in the system before we won't have any feed for our cattle,” BOB LOWE, president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, told reporters Monday afternoon during a briefing on Parliament Hill. Nick and Sue have more on the story here. Playbook caught up with O'Regan on Monday evening. This conversation was edited and condensed for clarity. What do you think is at the heart of the dispute? It's one of those things where it's not even choosing what I can tell or not tell you. The objective is the deal. I normally like being quite candid when I'm talking to journalists and the media — to the chagrin of various communication directors who've been incredibly patient with me. What's your role at the table? I spend more time out of that room than I do in it, mainly because these guys have their own relationships. These negotiators spend an awful lot of time together in intense periods like this. Particularly lately, they probably see each other more than they do their own families. You've got to know when your presence will help and when it doesn't. That restraint is important — not always necessarily easy for people who are driven to work in politics, because you tend to think that you can solve every problem, if you just got in there. Do you feel pressured to enact back-to-work legislation? I feel enormous pressure. My feelings thankfully don't enter into it. What we want here is some level of certainty and permanence, and that is best achieved by a deal that is arrived at by those parties to the collective bargaining process. Do your American counterparts ask about economic insecurity creeping along the border? It's congenial, but they do want to know what's happening. And they're anxious to make sure that there's progress, and I've assured them that there is. Will you stay in Calgary until a deal's done? Yeah. In fact, I had to text my husband because I realized that I had said in the House of Commons that I would be staying in Calgary until a deal gets done. I texted him and I said, "I don't want you to hear that in the news. But honey, I hope I'm home soon."
| | CONSERVATIVE CORNER | | UNITY OR LOSE FOREVER —JEAN CHAREST's comeback tour stopped at POLITICO on Monday, where ANDY BLATCHFORD interviewed the former Progressive Conservative leader who wants to be the next Conservative leader. Charest has weathered repeated attacks from rival PIERRE POILIEVRE, who keeps dismissing the former Quebec premier as a "Liberal" who brought in carbon taxes when he held the reins of power at the National Assembly. — Charest's response: Let cooler heads prevail. "We’re the answer, as long as we get our act together,” Charest said of his party when asked about a contest whose winner will eventually take on Justin Trudeau’s Liberals. “Either we're going to go down the road of wedge politics, American-style politics, or we're going to be the national party that [Canadians] want us to be.” None of this precludes Charest from sending out his own barbs, of course. He took on Poilievre's celebration of the disruptive trucker convoy that led to several damaging blockades. “A blockade is something that is not a protest,” he said. “To have someone in our party go out and support that, for me, is a failure in leadership… At the end of the day, you can't stand on both sides and say, ‘I'm going to make the laws and actually encourage people not to respect the law.’” Read the rest of Andy's reporting here. CATCHING UP WITH THE BRITS: After wrapping up with the U.S. in Baltimore Tuesday, U.K. Trade Secretary ANNE-MARIE TREVELYAN is expected to hop over to Canada later this week to launch talks for a new bilateral trade deal.
| | TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS | | — Governor General MARY SIMON meets with SHEIKH MISHAL AL-AHMAD AL-JABER AL-SABAH, the crown prince of the state of Kuwait. 9:30 a.m. A trio of Tory MPs — ED FAST, DAN ALBAS and GÉRARD DELTELL — will hold a press conference on inflation and the cost-of-living crisis. 9:35 a.m. Former central banker MARK CARNEY is talking energy and climate at the National Association for Business Economics. 10:30 a.m. NDP leader JAGMEET SINGH holds a press conference. 12 p.m. The University of Ottawa's ELIZABETH DUBOIS will talk mean tweets and democracy with journalists FATIMA SYED, ROSEMARY BARTON and MARK BLACKBURN. Tune in. 2:30 p.m. The Institute for Research on Public Policy is holding a virtual panel discussion on emerging shifts in regulatory governance.
| | ASK US ANYTHING | | TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW — What are you hearing that you need Playbook to know? Send it all our way.
| | PAPER TRAIL | | FROM THE TENDERS — Statistics Canada is paying the consulting giant Calian C$3.2 million to provide dentists who can help with the oral care portion of the federal agency's Canadian Health Measures Survey. FOOD NATION — Bureaucrats are looking for a contractor who can make Canadian grub cool again in a certain Asian market. "While Canada is perceived positively in Japan," reads the tender, "a limited awareness of specific Canadian food and beverage products or brands in the market persists." — Target foods: The feds want to pump up maple syrup and maple sugar, honey, vegetables, dried and frozen fruits, cuts of meat, confectionery, prepared meals, processed fish and seafood, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, pet food, and "functional foods and health and wellness products that are widely considered food." — Not on the list: "Bulk wheat or live animals; agriculture or fishing industry machinery and tools; food service and meal delivery platforms (e.g. UberEats); agri-food technology; and food packaging."
| | MEDIA ROOM | | — From POLITICO’s ELLA CREAMER: 55 Things You Need to Know About KETANJI BROWN JACKSON. — PAUL WELLS pops up in The Logic with a yarn about the Canada Infrastructure Bank's dithering on a potential transmission line underneath Lake Erie that's ruffling provincial feathers at Queen's Park. — The Backbench pod muses about Canada's ability to tackle global energy problems and the government's ability to spend money effectively. Listen. — The New York Times sets its eyes on Toronto, the "quietly booming tech town" that's now the third-largest on the continent. (Take that, Chicago and Los Angeles and Seattle and Washington, D.C.!) — JAIDEN RAMNATH, whom Playbook devotees might remember as a Grade 10 student whose Cabinet speculation graced this newsletter last fall, just launched his own weekly newsletter on Canadian politics. (FWIW, he totally predicted ANITA ANAND would be the next defense minister.)
| | ALSO FOR YOUR RADAR | | YOU ARE INVITED — On March 30 at 12 p.m. ET, POLITICO Canada will host a Twitter Space with some smart people who know what it takes to build a budget: — SAHIR KHAN, executive vice-president at the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy and a former PCO economic and financial adviser. — ROBERT ASSELIN, the senior vice-president of policy at the Business Council of Canada and former adviser to BILL MORNEAU. — REBEKAH YOUNG, the director of fiscal and provincial economics at Scotiabank and a former senior official at the Department of Finance. — And a new addition! JENNIFER ROBSON, a Carleton prof who helped design and implement public programs inside and outside of government. We'll be hosting a real-life mixer in downtown Ottawa later that day at 4:30 p.m. It's a chance to connect with plugged-in political junkies who know a thing or two about building budgets. More details to come, but please RSVP if you're interested.
| | PLAYBOOKERS | | Birthdays: HBD to WILLIAM SHATNER, 91 today. … Canadian anti-doping icon DICK POUND is celebrating, too. Spotted: Ottawa Public Health, engaging in friendly ribbing of Toronto Public Health's claims of "global leadership" in vaccination. … Public Safety Minister MARCO MENDICINO, smiling outside the FBI's training academy at Quantico. Ontario Premier DOUG FORD with SCOTTY GREENWOOD, CEO of the Canadian American Business Council, at the Canadian embassy in D.C. RENEE FILIATRAULT finds Post-it note solidarity at her mailbox. Movers and shakers: Hill + Knowlton's ANDY SINGH is lobbying for Saab, which badly wants to sell the Air Force a fleet of fighter jets worth billions of dollars. Ontario's deputy minister of red tape and regulatory burden reduction, GILES GHERSON, is out of government. His next stop : Executive VP and chair of the Toronto Region Board of Trade's Economic Blueprint Institute. PM Trudeau reappointed JOE FRIDAY to another 18-month term as public sector integrity commissioner. Friday has held the gig since 2015. (The job posting for Canada's next privacy commissioner is still online. The application review was set to begin in January.) — Off the rails: PIERRE CYR repped the Canadian Pacific Railway in a March 20 meeting with DAMIEN O'BRIEN, parliamentary affairs director to SEAMUS O'REGAN — i.e. the minister of back-to-work legislation if the company and striking rail workers can't resolve their dispute.) The Business Council of Canada has called on the feds to "prevent any further economic harm." CPR is a BCC member, repped by CEO KEITH CREEL. — Call for arms: The Canadian Sporting Arms & Ammunition Association lobbied Public Safety Minister MARCO MENDICINO and two staffers: senior adviser ROB JAMIESON and executive assistant CHRIS MASOTTI. Media mentions: Speaking of Wells, the newly free agent writer gave the Hill Times the lowdown on why he left Maclean's after spending most of 20 years there. The newspaper also noted the departure of ALISON UNCLES, who was let go, and MARIE-DANIELLE SMITH, who resigned the same day as Wells. Full disclosure: Your Playbook host worked for Maclean's until 2021. What the HT didn't report was the longer list of Maclean's staff who have recently left the masthead. Executive editor STEPHEN GREGORY was let go shortly after Uncles. Director of photography LIZ SULLIVAN and director of digital PRAJAKTA DHOPADE both left for the Globe and Mail. CHRISTINA GONZALES jumped to a gig as editorial lead at OMERS. — MICHELLE DA SILVA is leaving Xtra to join the Globe next week as an audience editor for Report on Business. Farewells: MP ROBERT KITCHEN paid tribute to former MP and senator LEONARD JOSEPH GUSTAFSON on Monday. “Throughout his life he was many things, including a contractor, businessman, MP, senator and, most importantly, a farmer,” Kitchen told the House. Gustafson died on March 18.
| | On the Hill | | 11 a.m. The House committee on procedure will meet in camera to discuss its review of the MPs’ conflict of interest code. 11 a.m. The House environment and sustainable development committee is at work behind closed doors on a couple of reports — one on single-use plastics, the other on nuclear waste governance. 11 a.m. The House public accounts committee will meet in camera to draft reports on a couple of Auditor General audits. 11 a.m. The House fisheries and oceans committee is studying flood control and mitigation in British Columbia. 11 a.m. The House committee on immigration will hear from lawyer STEVEN MEURRENS and other immigration groups. 3:30 p.m. GREG RICKFORD, Ontario’s natural resources minister, will appear off the top of the House industry committee meeting. MPs are studying the sourcing and processing of critical minerals. 3:30 p.m. Iqaluit Mayor KENNY BELL will be among witnesses at the House Indigenous and northern affairs committee, which is studying effects of the housing shortage on Indigenous peoples across Canada. 3:30 p.m. The House justice and human rights committee will hear from the Canadian Bar Association and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police as it reviews the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act. 3:30 p.m.The House status of women committee continues its study of domestic violence in Canada. 3:30 p.m.The House government operations and estimates committee hears from officials from Public Works and the Department of National Defence. 6:30 p.m. The House Standing Committee on Science and Research will hear from Jim Balsillie in his capacity as co-founder and chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators. 6:30 p.m. MICHELLE DOUGLAS will be among the witnesses at the House veterans affairs’ committee. Keep up to the latest House committee schedules here. Find Senate meeting schedules here.
| | PROZONE | | For Pro s, here’s our PM Canada memo: From one catastrophe to another. In news for POLITICO Pro s: — ‘We’ve learned absolutely nothing’: Tests could again be in short supply if Covid surges.
— Squeezing Putin where it hurts: His oil exports.
— Advocates push for cryptocurrency mining moratorium. Here's where the effort stands.
— Securities and Exchange Commission proposes landmark climate rule.
— Why Congress is angling to impose more rules on container ships.
— Tai pledges an ‘open mind’ as U.S., U.K. begin exploratory trade dialogue.
| | TRIVIA | | Monday's answer:The official gemstone of Alberta will soon be ammolite. Alberta culture minister RON ORR explains the choice here. Props to ANNE-MARIE STACEY, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, JOHN GUOBA, GARY ALLEN and MICHAEL MACDONALD. Tuesday’s question: Who said, “Language is the cornerstone of a culture. It is one of the first traditions that is passed on to us. To hear your mother tongue, to have the opportunity to speak it, is to carry a little bit of ‘home’ with you, no matter where you are.” Send your answers to ottawaplaybook@politico.com 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. Playbook wouldn’t happen without Luiza Ch. Savage and editor Sue Allan. | | | | 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 | | | | |  |
