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A daily look inside Canadian politics and power. | | | | |  | | By Nick Taylor-Vaisey and Maura Forrest | Send tips | Subscribe here | Follow Politico Canada Welcome to Ottawa Playbook. I'm your host, Nick Taylor-Vaisey with Maura Forrest. Today, we have some recommendations for the PMO on who should be giving JUSTIN TRUDEAU economic advice. Plus, we calculate just how many kilometers Cabinet traveled to show off their budget. And the Supreme Court responded to Playbook's report about a growing lack of unanimity on the country's highest bench. Did someone forward Playbook your way? Click here to sign up for your own subscription to this free newsletter.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | THIS WOMAN SHOULD ADVISE THE PM — The Liberal budget snuck in a promise to establish a permanent Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), a panel that would "reinforce the government’s access to expert advice and provide policy options for harnessing new opportunities and navigating increasingly complex economic challenges." — Reading the tea leaves: Liberals made this promise on the campaign trail. They wanted a new CEA to "help Canada achieve a higher standard of living, better quality of life, inclusive growth, and a more innovative and skillful economy." They pledged to create a gender-balanced group that would "reflect Canada's diversity." And they said they'd draw on voices "inside and outside of government." Who should have the PM’s ear? We asked around. — What the experts say: Playbook asked bank economists, academic economists, former Cabinet ministers and senior government advisers who they would appoint to such a panel. One name came up more than any other: FRANCES DONALD , senior managing director, chief economist and strategist at Manulife Investment Management. The Montreal-born Donald has also served stints at Scotiabank, Deloitte and the Bank of Canada. When she was named one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women's Executive Network less than three years ago, Manulife claimed she was the youngest chief economist at a Canadian financial institution — and one of only two women to hold that job. She didn't reply to Playbook's request for her own list of deserving appointees. But we'll keep asking. — Other popular picks:ARMINE YALNIZYAN, the Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers; CAROL ANNE HILTON, founder of the Indigenomics Institute; DANIEL TREFLER, the Canada Research Chair in Competitiveness and Prosperity at the Rotman School; JENNIFER ROBSON, political management prof at Carleton University; TAMMY SCHIRLE, econ prof at Wilfrid Laurier University; LINDSAY TEDDS and TREVOR TOMBE, econ profs at the University of Calgary; KEVIN MILLIGAN, econ prof at the University of British Columbia; and JACK MINTZ, President's Fellow of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. Transparency or nah: Should the new council operate behind closed doors, offering counsel with some certainty that their conversations won't become public knowledge? Or should it be subject to the kinds of transparency rules expected of government in more recent years? Pick your poison: KEN BOESSENKOOL , the executive director of Conservatives for Clean Growth, urged discretion. "The deliberations must be private and off the record so that it doesn't just become a public relations exercise rather than a serious, important exercise." MOSTAFA ASKARI from the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy took the opposite view: "To be effective, the Council must be open and transparent. Its deliberations should be made public. If the government disagrees with any recommendation from the Council it should publicly provide its reasons." — Will the CEA matter? One respondent reminded Playbook that the Council of Economic Advisors south of the border hires a team of staff economists that power the panel's work — and the competition is fierce for a limited number of jobs. LARRY SUMMERS, who was later treasury secretary to BILL CLINTON, worked for the CEA in the Reagan era. "People want to be part of it. Being appointed to it is career-defining for some," said another Playbook correspondent. As for the Canadian equivalent: "To me, we need to see how it's staffed, what it's tasked to do, how much true independence it has, and other factors to know if it will be important and effective." STEPHEN GORDON , an econ prof at Laval University in Quebec City, said the new CEA can't be packed with partisans. "The acid test of its usefulness will be if a new government will still be willing to entertain the advice of the members of the existing council," he wrote. "If the council consists entirely or mainly of people known to be Liberal or Liberal-friendly, then it would be worse than useless."
| | CONSERVATIVE CORNER | | STUMPING IN ONTARIO — The Poilievre campaign is back on the road. Tuesday evening brings a downtown Toronto rally at the Steam Whistle Brewery's Roundhouse. We know you're wondering about crowd size. The capacity of Locomotive Hall is 1,000. Poilievre's next stop is St. Catharines, the stomping grounds of Liberal MP CHRIS BITTLE, for a Thursday evening rally at the Holiday Inn (capacity: 240). Then it's time for a northern swing through hotels in Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury, a curling rink in Timmins and the Elks Lodge in North Bay (capacity: 380). That's three Liberal ridings — TERRY SHEEHAN, LINDA LAPOINTE and Speaker ANTHONY ROTA — and one held by NDP MP CHARLIE ANGUS. EASTERN JAUNT — Fellow leadership contender LESLYN LEWIS, whose name is conspicuously absent from Poilievre's attacks on rivals, is back out on the road later this week after a few days' rest following her Prairie and B.C. tours. Next up: a week in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec. HOW CONSERVATIVES CAN WIN — In case you missed it, give a listen to the recent Hub Dialogues conversation between SEAN SPEER and JAMES MOORE. Speer was a senior adviser to STEPHEN HARPER when Moore was an influential Cabinet minister. They both watched a functioning Tory coalition govern the country for almost a decade. Speer asked Moore for his best advice on how conservative politicians can respond to ordinary peoples' needs without engaging in what he called "lowest common denominator populism." Here's part of Moore's response: "I have a view that when you decouple optimism from conservatism, conservatism always loses. That the short game of aggravating a base to motivate them to come out and vote, but also be so angry and so motivated to come out and vote that they’re going to drag their son and daughter who just turned 18 to make sure that they come out and vote too, that that game only works for so long. "I do certainly believe in the RALPH KLEIN school: Lower expectations, exceed the lower expectations, be reasonable, be pragmatic, be responsible, rather than conflate everything, dial everything up, be fatalistic about your political success, and then you don’t get the job done, and then people just — it’s suicidal, ultimately, for a country. Where you just put all of your hopes and energies into politics and expect that politics will solve all the world’s problems. That is not proper conservatism. That’s not realism in terms of human beings, human nature, and how we organize ourselves collectively. "You’re putting too much hope and expectation into politics, and those of us on the right used to condemn the left for doing that; that statism as the solution to everything. And the right seems to play too much of that politics these days, and I think it needs to be tempered quite a bit."
| | ALSO FOR YOUR RADAR | | ALL EYES ON THE CLEVE — That's where the Canada-United States Law Institute's 46th annual conference will talk supply chain challenges for North America later this week. One of the headliners is Business Council of Canada honcho GOLDY HYDER , who will deliver a "distinguished lecture" and no doubt come armed with bespoke cross-border trade data tailored to each state (say, Ohio). — Also in the house: U.S. ambassador to Canada DAVID COHEN, former ambassador JIM BLANCHARD, auto parts exec FLAVIO VOLPE, GM GR manager SARAH GOLDFEDER, Canada-U.S. think tanker CHRIS SANDS, Suncor climate chief MARTHA HALL FINDLAY, Carleton prof FEN HAMPSON, consul-general JOE COMARTIN, National Post columnist DIANE FRANCIS and CBC journalist ALEX PANETTA. — Not on the agenda: Innovation Minister and former trade minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE, an alum of the very law school hosting the event. FOMO much? AGREE TO DISAGREE — Last week, Playbook noted that the rate of unanimous Supreme Court of Canada decisions has declined substantially during the past several years, from nearly 80 percent in 2014 to less than 50 percent last year. We asked the court for an explanation, and on Thursday, we got a response from RENÉE MARIA TREMBLAY, the court’s deputy executive legal officer. Here’s part of what she said: “The topic of consensus at the Supreme Court of Canada gains currency among journalists and academics every few years. Too much consensus is seen as a lack of intellectual debate, whereas too little consensus is seen as a sign that the judges are not getting along. Neither is true. They are nine different people who may have differing opinions on the issues that come before the court. That’s a good thing. “When there are dissenting opinions, the Supreme Court shares them with the public. Some courts of civil-law tradition throughout Europe only publish the majority decision. In such jurisdictions, judges cannot publicly communicate a dissent. It would be a mistake to assume their decisions are more often unanimous than those of the Supreme Court of Canada. Rather, in Canada, disagreements are part of our democracy, and sharing them is more transparent for the public.”
| | PAPER TRAIL | | LANGUAGE LAW — A judge in New Brunswick kicked up controversy last week when she ruled the province’s lieutenant-governor must be bilingual under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Some constitutional experts were quick to argue the Charter guarantees “institutional bilingualism,” not that individuals be bilingual — and that the ruling is unlikely to withstand appeal. But many Canadians probably wouldn’t bat an eye at this decision. After all, the government’s latestofficial languages tracking survey suggests 40 percent of Canadians think federal public servants must be bilingual. As anyone in the bureaucracy knows, bilingualism is a condition for some government jobs — but certainly not all. Here are some other language “myths” the survey put to Canadians, alongside the percentage of respondents who believe them to be true. — In Canada outside of Quebec, French is no longer the second-most common language after English — 64 percent (including 58 percent of francophones). — Only those who grew up in a French environment will ever become proficient enough to meet the bilingualism criteria of the federal public service — 25 percent. — The Quebec government does not have to provide any services in English — 26 percent. — The English-speaking minority in Quebec is more socio-economically privileged than the French-speaking majority — 20 percent (including 48 percent of francophones).
| | MEDIA ROOM | | — A lead author of the latest IPCC report talks to the BBC about a key finding that has been widely misinterpreted. — POLITICO’s MARK SCOTT explains how Western tech firms have cut off Russia’s propaganda machine from essential digital services needed to target people with their disinformation. — In a National Post interview with TYLER DAWSON, Alberta Premier JASON KENNEY takes questions on party divisions, Keystone XL, and the leadership review underway. — CBC’s The House reports from Halifax on the multiple issues that contribute to Canada’s housing crisis. Host Chris Hall writes on one family’s attempts to find a home in a hotspot where the price of a single family home increased 33.5 percent year over year.
| | PROZONE | | For Pro s, POLITICO Canada’s daily policy newsletter: What China’s zero-Covid policy means for Canada. In other headlines for s:
— Macron goes green to attract red voters.
— 'Sense of urgency' for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services climate change office.
— Canadian hydropower is coming to New York City. Here are the details.
— Russia’s propaganda machine takes another hit.
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Spotted in Toronto: Hands up if you remember the Economic Action Plan from the Harper era. This rare vestige of past stimulus spending is still standing outside Union Station. | Nick Taylor-Vaisey/POLITICO | Birthdays: HBD to Liberal Cabinet minister DAN VANDAL and Quebec MNA JEAN ROUSSELLE. Also celebrating today: former government leader PETER VAN LOAN, PIERRE PETTIGREW, LISE ST-DENIS, MICHAEL BROWN and TED WHITE. HBD + 2 to Bloc Leader YVES-FRANÇOIS BLANCHET. HBD + 3 to author and policy expert MARK JARVIS: 50! Another belated HBD to the Charter of Rights, 40 on Sunday. Spotted: Former MP GUY LAUZON, ringing the bell at the end of radiation treatments. Media moves: ALANNA SMITH capped a Big News Week with some of her own — she’s joining the Globe’s Calgary bureau … It’s Day 1 at Global News Toronto for COLIN D’MELLO.
| | TRIVIA | | | 
Making like a tourist, Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs, left, poses with the Vegreville pysanka. | Courtesy the office of MP Shannon Stubbs | Friday’s answer: The second largest Easter egg in the world can be found in Vegreville, Alberta. That’s in the riding of Lakeland where SHANNON STUBBS is MP. Bonus: Reader SCOTT LOHNES tells us: “The egg is really a complicated jigsaw puzzle with more than 12,000 pieces including; 3,512 visible facets, 6,978 nuts and bolts, and 177 internal struts.” Props to JANE DOULL, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, LEIGH LAMPERT, JOHN ECKER, JOHN GUOBA, BEN ROTH and VICTOR KRISEL. Monday’s question: Name the province that passed the Official Languages Act on this date in history. 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 | | | | |  |
