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A daily look inside Canadian politics and power. | | | | |  | | By Maura Forrest | Send tips | Subscribe here | Follow Politico Canada Welcome to Ottawa Playbook. I'm your host, Maura Forrest, with Andy Blatchford. Today, Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU returns from a surprise visit to Ukraine. Also, we bring you a first-hand account from a Canadian who ended up on the frontlines after the Russian invasion. And Conservatives (and others) reflect on the first debate. Did someone forward you this Playbook? Click here to sign up for your own subscription to this free newsletter.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
This image provided by the Irpin Mayor's Office shows Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walking with mayor Oleksandr Markushyn, right, in Irpin, Ukraine, Sunday, May 8, 2022. | Irpin Mayor's Office/ AP | THE BEST-LAID PLANS — It took about as long as it takes to write a tweet for Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU’s supposedly secret trip to Ukraine on Sunday to become… well, not so secret. Photos of the PM touring a suburb of Kyiv began circulating Sunday morning, followed quickly by video of Trudeau raising a Canadian flag at the embassy and declaring it reopened. By the end of the day, Trudeau had announced an additional C$50 million in military aid for Ukraine, including drone cameras, satellite imagery, small arms and ammunition. Another C$10 million will go to human rights and civil society groups, as well as demining. Canada will also remove trade tariffs on Ukrainian imports for one year, and is imposing sanctions on another 40 Russian individuals and entities. “It is clear that Vladimir Putin is responsible for heinous war crimes,” Trudeau said during a press conference alongside Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY. “There must be accountability.” Zelenskyy, who met privately with Trudeau earlier in the day, said Canada is “second after the United States in terms of the scope of assistance it’s been providing to Ukraine.” — The background: Trudeau had been under increasing pressure to visit Ukraine, as several European leaders have done since the Russian invasion in February. Foreign Affairs Minister MÉLANIE JOLY, who accompanied Trudeau with Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND, had suggested recently that the Canadian embassy in Kyiv would reopen imminently. The timing of the visit is significant. Today is Victory Day in Russia, which marks the defeat of Nazi Germany, and there are concerns Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN may use the occasion to escalate the conflict. “What Vladimir Putin is doing today, these past weeks, brings shame on the memory of the millions of people, the millions of Russians we sacrificed in the name of freedom,” Trudeau said. “That is Putin’s legacy.” — More support: Trudeau and Zelenskyy both participated Sunday in a meeting of G-7 leaders, who pledged additional support to Ukraine, including by “phasing out or banning the import of Russian oil.” — Other VIPs: Trudeau wasn’t the only high-profile visitor to Ukraine on Sunday. U.S. First Lady JILL BIDEN also made a Mother’s Day visit to western Ukraine, where she met with Ukrainian First Lady OLENA ZELENSKA. U.S. President JOE BIDEN has yet to visit the war-torn country. BONO was also in Kyiv to give a surprise concert in a subway station that had been used as a bomb shelter.
| | Talk of the town | | TRIVIA NIGHT, IN REAL LIFE — Playbook Trivia is going non-virtual: Thursday, June 9 at the METROPOLITAIN in Ottawa! Gather your team, then send us an RSVP to reserve a table. Space will be limited.
| | CONSERVATIVE CORNER | | | 
Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre gestures toward Jean Charest as Roman Baber, left, Scott Aitchison and Leslyn Lewis, right, debate at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference, May 5, 2022. | Adrian Wyld, The Canadian Press | THE AFTERMATH — The reviews are in on the first Conservative leadership race, and we’ve compiled a selection for you, including from Conservative heavyweights, the “ivory tower commentariat” and the candidates themselves. Do the opinions of any of these folks matter to those who will eventually choose the next leader? That’s an open question. “[Thursday’s] debate was embarrassing for our party. The fighting, yelling, and screaming. The partisan cheap shots at fellow Conservatives. We will never win another election if this is how we talk to each other and Canadians.” — Candidate SCOTT AITCHISON “I worry about the internal competition getting too personal. I’d like to see them stick to the principles and policies.” — Former Reform Party Leader PRESTON MANNING, in the Globe and Mail “Internal conflict is how political parties evolve.” — LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, for the Toronto Sun “Whoever wins has got to unite the party afterwards. … I would just encourage everybody to remember the day after the leadership election.” — Alberta Premier JASON KENNEY, speaking to the National Post “It may be now that the old, progressive conservatism is the real fringe movement in the Conservative Party of Canada.” — SUSAN DELACOURT, for the Toronto Star “There's Justin Trudeau, taxes and government regulation, of course. But candidates… pointed [on Thursday] to other alleged threats and sources of unhappiness: vaccine mandates, public health restrictions, ‘cancel culture,’ ‘wokeism,’ ‘censorship,’ the ‘elites,’ the ‘liberal media’ and the CBC.” — AARON WHERRY, for CBC News “It wasn’t a debate about supporting the [trucker] convoy or not. It was about who supported it first and fully.” — CAMPBELL CLARK, for the Globe and Mail “When it becomes personal, when you see some of the really pointed [and] nasty exchanges on display in that debate, I don’t think it bodes well.” — Former leadership candidate PETER MACKAY, speaking to Global News “If you’re in politics, you have a choice. You can speak to the lowest common denominator and cultivate the dark side of human beings or alternatively, which I believe, you can try to reach for higher ground and put out a view and vision to try to speak to our better angels.” — Candidate JEAN CHAREST, speaking to the National Post “The battle lines are no longer drawn on the issue of national unity; now the struggle is about wrestling back ‘control’ from the illegitimate ‘elites,’ a tribe to which Charest undoubtedly belongs.” — JOHN IVISON, for the National Post “The corporate media and the pundits would have Canadians believe that the race is an angry battleground pitting populists against Trump imitators, extremes against moderates. We know they always would rather tell a story of fracture in the party, of disunity and infighting and of discontent.” — Interim leader CANDICE BERGEN What advice do you have for the candidates ahead of Wednesday’s debate in Edmonton? Let us know at ottawaplaybook@politico.com.
| | AROUND THE HILL | | ICYMI — POLITICO’s ZI-ANN LUM scooped on Friday that retired Gen. JONATHAN VANCE has been stripped of the Order of Military Merit at his own request. Questions were raised about his eligibility for the prestigious award after he pleaded guilty in March to one count of obstruction of justice related to an investigation of allegations of sexual misconduct involving two female subordinates. Vance was appointed chief of the defense staff in 2015, and the investigation began shortly after he retired from the military in January 2021. His request was approved by Governor General MARY SIMON on April 20. COMING UP — The House of Commons will be occupied with two big bills this week: Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND’s budget implementation bill, and Heritage Minister PABLO RODRIGUEZ’s online streaming bill, which would require streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ to feature more Cancon. Oh, and if you’re up late on Wednesday, check out ParlVu! The House will be sitting until midnight.
| | AROUND THE WORLD | | | 
Hunter Francis returned to Canada from Ukraine with advice: 'Don’t go if you don’t know what you’re doing.' | Photo courtesy of Hunter Francis | CANADIAN SOLDIER IN UKRAINE — First, it was the stunning footage of Russian missiles pounding Ukraine during the early days of VLADIMIR PUTIN’s February invasion. Then came Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY’s global appeal for foreign fighters. HUNTER FRANCIS, a 24-year-old former Canadian soldier, was captivated. All of it was enough for him to quit his job, sell some of his stuff, buy a C$1,800 plane ticket to eastern Europe and volunteer for Ukraine’s international legion. — Impact: A couple of weeks later, Francis found himself scrambling into a Ukrainian trench to escape a Russian air strike. He was caught in the middle of the March 13 rocket attack on a military training center in the western Ukrainian city of Yavoriv. Reports at the time said 25 people were killed. “Six o’clock… f—ing chaos, absolute chaos,” Francis, a resident of Eel Ground First Nation in New Brunswick, told POLITICO’s ANDY BLATCHFORD about the first explosion. The first rocket hit early in the morning while he was asleep inside the barracks — his seventh day in Ukraine and first at the base. “I thought I was dreaming that I felt something on my face. It turns out it was glass,” Francis said. “The wall was all cracked and the windows were blown in on us. Then there was another explosion that just lit the whole room up.” — Escape: Francis said he bolted from the building as missiles continued to hit the compound. He took some tiny pieces of shrapnel to his nose and hand as he ran past a gymnasium just as it was hit. Francis felt a burning sensation on his face — and, for a moment, he thought he was dead. He also described the effect of the blast on the building: “It turned into liquid, like a wave, before it just all collapsed in on itself.” Francis dove into a trench alongside other soldiers. “I'm sitting there, everyone's praying out loud, I'm praying out loud,” he recalled. — No ammo: When the strikes stopped, Francis said the Ukrainian military started handing guns — CZ Scorpions — to everyone. The catch, though, was that they didn’t have ammunition and most soldiers like himself didn’t know how to use them, he said. He described the response by volunteers as a mass exodus. “At that point, we left. I relinquished my gun with no ammo to someone else,” he said. The Polish border, after all, was about 15 miles away. — A message: The missile attack changed everything for Francis, who has since returned to Canada. He says his three years of experience in the Canadian military was nowhere near enough to prepare him for what he experienced in Yavoriv. Francis has a warning for those interested in joining the fight: “Don’t go to Ukraine if you don’t know what you’re doing.” “Just make sure you have the experience and the emotional fitness to be willing to die for that country because it’s a very real possibility.”
| | TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS | | Debate on Bill C-19 resumes on Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND’s massive budget implementation bill. The bill is at the Senate’s national finance committee for pre-study, which hasn’t yet started. Innovation Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE is in Germany and Belgium this week. He will join the G-7 Digital Ministers meeting in Düsseldorf May 10-11. Bloc Québécois Leader YVES-FRANÇOIS BLANCHET is in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Que. 9 a.m. Governor General MARY SIMON begins a five-day visit to her home region of Nunavik in Kuujjuaq with a round-table discussion about northern realities. 10:15 a.m. (Atlantic) Justice Minister DAVID LAMETTI, Immigration Minister SEAN FRASER and Halifax MP ANDY FILLMORE will make a funding announcement for victims of crime in Nova Scotia. 11 a.m. NASA holds a press conference to deliver an update on the James Webb Space Telescope. 11 a.m. Senators LUCIE MONCION, PIERRE-HUGUES BOISVENU and PIERRE DALPHOND will hold a press conference to mark Jury Appreciation Week. Moncion has tabled a motion in the Senate proposing to designate the second week of May as Jury Appreciation Week in Canada. 6:30 p.m. Housing and Diversity and Inclusion Minister AHMED HUSSEN hosts a reception at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa to celebrate Asian Heritage Month. VIVIENNE POY, Canada’s first Chinese-Canadian senator, who tabled a motion creating Asian Heritage Month in 2001, will join the event.
| | MEDIA ROOM | | — The CBC’s DAVID THURTON talks to Liberal MP GREG FERGUS as he leaves his roles as co-chair of the Parliamentary Black Caucus and head of the Liberal Black Caucus. — Former Bank of Canada governor DAVID DODGE told CTV's Question Period that PIERRE POILIEVRE's claim the Bank of Canada is "financially illiterate" is "bull—." Poilievre later clapped back , saying Dodge "should be embarrassed he said nothing as Bank of Canada became Trudeau's ATM." — On The Decibel this morning, transportation writer ERIC ATKINS on the massive delays at Canada’s international airports. — ICYMI via PATRICK WHITE in The Globe and Mail: For the first time, Indigenous women make up half the female population in Canada’s federal prisons. — SUPRIYA DWIVEDI writes: It’s not wedge politics to acknowledge the Conservative party’s stance on abortion. — POLITICO’s EU Confidential pod considers the EU’s plan to ban Russian oil. — On the latest “Playbook Deep Dive,” hear from JOSH GERSTEIN, one of the reporters behind the mega-scoop about the draft SCOTUS opinion.
| | PROZONE | | For POLITICO Pro s, our policy newsletter by ZI-ANN LUM: The week ahead: The House plays beat the clock. In other headlines for Pros:
— U.S. to ask world for more on global Covid fight as its own cash dwindles.
— Trudeau to outlaw foreign home buyers as affordability fears heat up.
— Alberta's Kenney heading to D.C. to promote North American energy security.
— Biden’s trade team: RIP globalization.
— Washington goes on the global data privacy offensive.
| | ASK US ANYTHING | | TELL US EVERYTHING — What are you hearing that you need Playbook to know? Send it all our way.
| | PLAYBOOKERS | | Birthdays: HBD to B.C. MLA DOUG ROUTLEY. Also celebrating today: New Brunswick’s GERALD CLAVETTE. Belated best wishes to Chatelaine’s CHANTAL BRAGANZA. Spotted: CAROLYN BENNETT and PETER O’BRIAN, up to date on vaccines. … Sen. PAULA SIMONS, leading a Jane’s Walk in Edmonton … Heritage Minister PABLO RODRIGUEZ and Conservative MP JOHN NATER in Berlin … Sen. TONY LOFFREDA, at the game … CATHERINE MCKENNA, set to attend Aspen Ideas: Climate. DIEDRAH KELLY, Canada’s consul general in Mumbai, being charmed by SHAH RUKH KHAN. … LAWRENCE MACAULAY , in conversation with Korean Ambassador KEUNG RYONG CHANG. Media mentions: Shared Bylines, a mentorship and scholarship program for BIPOC student journalists in Canada, is back for 2022! Would-be mentors and students have until June 20 to apply. A full list of National Newspaper Award winners is here. KARYN PUGLIESE, MARK MACKINNON, DAVID EBNER and TU THANH HA were among the winners. Congrats to ALTHIA RAJ, who picked up the John Wesley Dafoe Award for Politics. In recognition of all the other amazing journalism this year, The Globe’s JANA PRUDEN created the Nah-tional Newspaper Award: “Give it to a friend or colleague, or keep it for yourself. You deserve it. For real.” SUSAN ORMISTON is among six recipients of honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Saskatchewan: “My roots are deeply embedded in the prairies.” Movers and shakers: NESI ALTARAS is the new digital engagement officer for the Institute for Research on Public Policy.
| | Monday Today | | Keep up to House committee schedules here. Find Senate meeting schedules here. 11 a.m. The House agriculture and agri-food committee resumes its study of the environmental contribution of agriculture with the aid of six department officials. 11 a.m. Doctors Without Borders will be among the witnesses at the House foreign affairs committee on vaccine equity and intellectual property rights. 11 a.m. At noon, in its second hour, the House finance committee is scheduled to hear from Canadians for Tax Fairness, Wine Growers Canada, Agri-Food Analytics Lab and others as it studies Bill C-19. 11 a.m. The House transport, infrastructure and communities committee meets in camera to consider its draft report on railway safety. 11 a.m. The House human resources committee is also behind closed doors as it discusses a draft report on Covid-19 and seniors. 11 a.m. The Senate rules, procedures and the rights of Parliament committee will hear from Sen. CHANTAL PETITCLERC and Sen. DENNIS DAWSON on the topic of committee mandates. 2 p.m. The Senate Aboriginal peoples committee meets in camera to consider a draft report of its study of the federal government’s constitutional, treaty, political and legal responsibilities to First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. The meeting goes public when senators move on to consider a draft budget. 2 p.m. The Senate national security and defence committee meets to study security and defense issues in the Arctic. 3:30 p.m. Transport Minister OMAR ALGHABRA and three senior department officials will be in the hot seat at the second half of the House official languages committee meeting to kick off its study of official languages at Canadian National. 3:30 p.m. The House international trade committee meets to hear from witnesses representing the Canadian Canola Growers Association, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, the Canadian Pork Council and others as part of its study about Indo-Pacific business opportunities. 3:30 p.m. Former MP DAN MCTEAGUE, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers’ SHANNON JOSEPH and Clean Energy Canada’s MERRAN SMITH are on the witness list at the House natural resources committee as MPs continue their study on a fair and equitable energy transformation. 3:30 p.m. The House health committee continues its study delving into the state of Canada’s health workforce with witnesses from the Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Nurses Association and the College of Family Physicians of Canada. 3:30 p.m. The House heritage committee meets behind closed doors to consider a draft report of its study on the impact of local news of Rogers’ takeover of Shaw. 3:30 p.m. The House national defense committee meets to continue its study of rising domestic operational deployments and challenges facing the Canadian Armed Forces. 3:30 p.m. The Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Nurses Association and the College of Family Physicians of Canada will be at the House health committee. 5 p.m. The Senate committee on official languages will hear from Immigration Minister SEAN FRASER as part of its study on matters relating to francophone immigration to minority communities. See the complete list of witnesses. 5 p.m. The Senate human rights committee will hear witnesses from Pauktuuitit Inuit Women of Canada and Amautiit Nunavut Inuit Women’s Association’s Madeleine Redfern on the topic of forced and coerced sterilization of people in Canada. 6:30 p.m. The House special committee on Afghanistan will hear from National Defense Minister ANITA ANAND, her deputy minister BILL MATTHEWS and Chief of the Defense Staff Gen. WAYNE EYRE as part of its study of the situation in the country. 6:30 p.m. The Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying will hear from nine witnesses over three hours.
| | TRIVIA | | Friday’s answer: Liberal MP GEORGE BAKER called JOHN CROSBIE Mr. Potato Head. In response, Crosbie called him “a real pomme-de-terrorist, if not a mashochist.” Writes ROBERT MCDOUGALL, who submitted the question: “Since I can’t legitimately submit an answer, I will just note that the debate had to do with accusations that Air Canada was using Belgian rather than Canadian potatoes in its in-flight meals.” Props to MICHAEL SUNG, ANNE-MARIE STACEY, CHRISTOPHER LALANDE, SHEILA GERVAIS, BEN ROTH and DOROTHY MCCABE. Monday’s question: Name the author who described the reception of his book this way: “Turner used a salty adjective that implied graphic sexual intercourse. Mulroney was said to have pounded the dinner table and vowed, ominously, that my time would come. Trudeau merely put a hand over one of his eyes and laughed when I encountered him at a reception.” For bonus marks, name the book. 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 | | | | |  |
