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Thanks for reading Ottawa Playbook. The last federal election was one year ago today. The House is back from a summer break, though JUSTIN TRUDEAU is not. The PM preempted a highly anticipated showdown with PIERRE POILIEVRE by flying to New York for a speech at the U.N. General Assembly. They'll renew acquaintances later this week. For now, we talk to-do lists — what Trudeau needs to get done, and who Poilievre needs to hire. |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
Parliament returns. | POLITICO Canada | SABOTAGE SEASON — Summer, we hardly knew ye. Parliament returns today but Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU won’t be in the House. He’s in the Big Apple, chewing on the political gabfest that’s the United Nations General Assembly and its arguably more interesting sideshows. When the PM and his posse return to the House on Thursday, PIERRE POILIEVRE, now the Conservatives’ chief mischief-maker, will be waiting across the aisle. The pressure is on for Liberals to bank some wins or risk mobilizing Poilievre’s growing anti-Trudeau base. Concerns over high costs of living prompted Liberals to introduce their C$4.5-billion affordability plan, which some economists have warned could saddle Canadians with higher interest rates for longer. This would create communication challenges. Spending untold sums of money to help industry move through a green transition, up to C$2 trillion we’re told, while taxpayers are saddled with runaway inflation is one recipe for voter discontent. Some other priorities on Trudeau’s laundry list of to-dos: — Pass old legislation: C-11, the government bill proposing to overhaul the Broadcasting Act and bring streaming giants such as Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Video, Disney+ and others under Canadian content rules. Also Bill-21, the government’s proposed handgun “freeze.” — Introduce new legislation: Text of the C$4.5-billion affordability plan. — Do the fandango: Kidding. More on that later. And more from ZI-ANN LUM on the return of the House. Did someone forward you this free newsletter? Sign up for your own copy to keep up with the latest insights and analysis from inside Ottawa politics. | | | | A message from Team SkyGuardian Canada: Leveraging the well-proven MQ-9 platform that has supported Five Eyes and NATO missions for more than a decade, Team SkyGuardian brings together the best in business and technology to serve Canada, the Canadian Armed Forces, and the many industries that support them. Our government and industry team will help ensure Canada’s safety and security for the long term. | | |
STAFFING UP — At the dawn of the PIERRE POILIEVRE era, the new Tory leader wakes up every day to a supersized to-do list. "There's a million decisions that have to be made," StrategyCorp VP GARRY KELLER recently told Playbook. "The main thing for the people around Pierre will be to cut out the noise."
Which got us thinking: Who is advising Poilievre as the House returns? — What needs to get done after a leadership win: Keller has been there before. He was chief of staff to former interim Tory leader RONA AMBROSE and stuck around as ANDREW SCHEER got himself organized in 2017. A new leader needs to: thank donors and volunteers; take calls from caucus; schedule meetings with key industry stakeholders; deal with an avalanche of media requests; organize a daily routine; manage a daily schedule; name a senior caucus leadership team; and then name a shadow Cabinet; and also appoint senior players in the party. — What we know: Poilievre’s senior campaign adviser and jane-of-all-trades JENNI BYRNE is chairing the transition. ANTHONY KOCH is handling comms. MIKE CRASE is the new executive director of the Conservative Party. ROBERT STALEY is now chair of the Conservative Fund Canada. TONY CLEMENT is a fund director. A week ago, Poilievre named his caucus leadership squad — including deputy leaders MELISSA LANTSMAN and TIM UPPAL. But as the House settles in for a few months of parliamentary swashbuckling, Poilievre is backed up by the same shadow Cabinet appointed by interim leader CANDICE BERGEN. At least for now. — And then there's OLO: That's shorthand for Office of the Leader of the Opposition, the nerve center of the leader's effort to take on the government. The notoriously out-of-date federal employee directory — GEDS, in the jargon — lists dozens of people who until recently had day jobs in Bergen's OLO. Somebody needs to manage the leader's travel, day-to-day operations, correspondence, outreach and stakeholder relations, and social media. People will need to work for those people. It's not clear how many of Bergen's flock plan to stick around. Keller says Poilievre will benefit from existing parliamentary staff who bring intuition on the tiniest details — for instance, where a particular person likes their desk in a room. But Poilievre's transition crew appears in no rush to publicly announce senior staff. ERIN O'TOOLE went a different route in 2020. A day after his win, O'Toole named three top positions: chief of staff TAUSHA MICHAUD, campaign manager FRED DELOREY, and Quebec advisor ALUPA CLARKE. He also nominated JANET FRYDAY DOREY as the party's executive director. Ten days after Poilievre's win, there's no chief of staff — only rumors running rampant about who might be in and who might be out. — Hiring ain't easy: Whispering Tories acknowledge a hard truth. OLO is a tough sell for experienced partisans who already have job security and families to support. The uncertainty of a minority government is repellent for the comfortably corporate class. Who wants to trade stock options for opposition life? Others are ensconced in provincial governments. Conservative parties run eight provinces — every legislature east of British Columbia and west of Newfoundland and Labrador. "The Conservative movement is spread pretty thin," said one Tory familiar with the landscape. Take Ontario: DOUG FORD 's re-election means Queen's Park is where Conservatives get to govern for at least four years. If Poilievre eventually wins an election, the lure of the Prime Minister's Office is an easier sell on grizzled politicos who'd uproot their lives. But OLO is not PMO. Everyone knows it. | | | | A message from Team SkyGuardian Canada:   | | | | | Talk of the town | |
NO ESCAPE FROM REALITY — Who among us has never sung along raucously to Bohemian Rhapsody? Be honest — you know you’ve done it. Maybe you tried to hit both the high Galileos and the low Galileos and didn’t quite nail any of them. Maybe you attempted the guitar solo and later wished you hadn’t. If there’s one thing that unites us all, surely it’s embarrassing ourselves in the name of FREDDIE MERCURY.
Then the question you have to answer is this: Is it OK that the prime minister did it, too? What if it happened just as the world was saying goodbye to QUEEN ELIZABETH II? — Face the truth: On Monday, a video of Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU singing along to the 1975 Queen hit in a London hotel lobby on Saturday evening went viral. Quebec musician GREGORY CHARLES — a member of Canada’s delegation to the queen’s funeral — was at the piano. Soon, the video was all over the British tabloid press. The Daily Mail seized the opportunity to publish the full “litany” of scandals that have afflicted the world’s “most woke” prime minister, from the ill-fated India trip to the blackface photos. — We will not let you go: The reactions in Canada ranged from shoulder shrugs to outrage. On one hand, some asked, isn’t the guy allowed to be a person? We’ve all enjoyed moments of levity while in mourning, haven’t we? On the other hand: Outrage! The queen! How dare he?! — Nothing really matters: Maybe there’s a middle ground. Maybe it really, really doesn’t matter that the PM sang a song. But maybe, given his predisposition for making awkward headlines at inopportune moments , he should have known better. If the queen’s funeral was an exercise in symbolism and pageantry in memory of a monarch who endeavored not to make herself the story, maybe no one needed to see Trudeau being a human at this exact moment. — Any way the wind blows: We’ll give the final word to the National Post’s CHRIS SELLEY : “My only opinion on Trudeau's lounge act is that it amazes me how little risk-management goes on in the PMO even after all the ... stuff.” And we’ll give the actual final word to an unnamed Hill denizen who shared this thought with Playbook: “Freddie Mercury is the only queen I recognize.” | | TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS | | | 
U.N. headquarters. | Jennifer Peltz, File | The U.N. General Assembly opens its first day of high-level debates. 8:30 a.m. PM Trudeau will attend the UNGA joined by Foreign Minister MÉLANIE JOLY. 8:30 a.m. Statistics Canada will release the Consumer Price Index for August. Analysts expect the annual inflation rate to show another deceleration in August. 10:00 a.m. Trudeau will hold a bilateral meeting with Suriname President CHANDRIKAPERSAD SANTOKHI. 10:15 a.m. NDP leader JAGMEET SINGH holds a press conference in West Block. 12:30 p.m. Trudeau will participate in an executive roundtable with HILLARY CLINTON on “Unlocking and Realizing the Benefits of Inclusive Job Growth.” 2 p.m. Trudeau will participate in the Global Food Security Summit. 2:30 p.m. Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND will attend the funeral of former Liberal Cabinet minister Bill Graham. 3:45 p.m. Bank of Canada Deputy Governor PAUL BEAUDRY will speak at the University of Waterloo. The title of his speech: “Pandemic macroeconomics: What we’ve learned, and what may lie ahead.” 4 p.m. Trudeau will participate in the Christchurch Call Summit. 4:15 p.m. Singh will attend the CUPE National Executive Board Meeting. 6:30 p.m. Trudeau will attend “Countdown to CBD COP15: Landmark Leaders’ Event for a Nature Positive World.” Environment Minister STEVEN GUILBEAULT will also be in attendance. | | HOUSE BUSINESS | |
9 a.m. The Senate Committee on Human Rights will hold public hearings in Quebec City as part of its study on Islamophobia in Canada.
11 a.m. The House national defense committee will continue its study of the “threat analysis affecting Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces’ operational readiness to meet those threats.” — Behind closed doors: The House international trade committee meets to talk “committee business,” the House citizenship and immigration committee will consider a draft report of its review of differential outcomes, the House natural resources committee meets to go over a copy of its study looking at the proposed GHG emissions cap for the oil and gas sector, plus “committee business.” | | | | A message from Team SkyGuardian Canada: Learn about the remotely piloted multi-mission aircraft building Canadian industrial partnerships that deliver sovereignty and security for Canada. | | | | | For your radar | |
SAVE THE DATE — Join us for a live edition of Playbook Trivia Sept. 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Metropolitain in Ottawa. McMillan Vantage is the team to beat. RSVP here with the name of your team and its players. Need help finding a team? Let us know.
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| | MEDIA ROOM | | | 
A general view of Mounties of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police along The Mall during the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, in London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. | Chip Somodevilla/Pool via AP |
— Watch: World leaders mourn Queen Elizabeth II at funeral, in 180 seconds.
— Top of POLITICO this morning: How Democrats are trying to counter a wave of GOP attacks on crime. — The Hub’s GEOFF RUSS notes, “this year’s municipal elections have seen overtly pro-development and pro-affordability, or YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard), candidates take centre stage.” — MARIO POLÈSE, professor emeritus at Institut national de la recherche scientifique, asks of the dream of bilingualism: What went wrong and with what might that admirable dream be replaced? — Worth noting from POLITICO’s ZACH MONTELLARO: Why we may not know who won the Senate on Election Day: “Trump-aligned candidates on the ballot have signaled they could mimic the former president and use any delays in 2022 to undermine confidence in the results again.” | | PROZONE | |
For POLITICO Pro s, our latest policy newsletter: The government’s to-do list
In news for POLITICO Pro s:
— Biden declared the pandemic 'over.' His Covid team says it's more complicated.
— How to regulate the metaverse.
— DeSantis appeals injunction over anti-‘woke’ law.
— Commerce proposes limited 'Buy America' broadband waiver.
— POLITICO Pro Q&A: 'Can legal weed win?'
— Europe’s energy crisis sparks air pollution fears. | | PLAYBOOKERS | |
Birthdays: HBD to DOUG YOUNG, chairman emeritus of Summa, PHIL FONTAINE, former chief of the Assembly of First Nations, DAVID BRAZIL, interim Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec solidaire MNA ANDRÉS FONTECILLA.
HBD + 1 to TODD LANE, director of communications for Minister HARJIT SAJJAN. Movers and shakers: Narcity, a news outlet that caters to an audience of millennials and Gen-Zers, enlisted a pair of consultants — Solstice Public Affairs partner JEAN-GUY FRÉCHETTE and senior associate LINDA GODIN — to make its case in Ottawa. — Top priorities: Exploring eligibility criteria for journalism tax credits; and Bill C-18, legislation that would require platforms such as Facebook and Google to share revenue with news outlets. Counsel Public Affairs' LEEZANN FREED-LOBCHUK is now repping the Alliance for Privacy and Innovation in Canada, which wants to ensure Bill C-27 "protects individual privacy and allows for the responsible use of personal information by Canadian businesses." — The alliance's members: BCE, Canadian Tire, goeasy, Manulife Financial, Rogers Communications, Royal Bank of Canada, Sun Life Financial and Telus. From the ethics files: BENJAMIN DOLIN, a full-time member of the Immigration and Refugee Board, ponied up C$250 to the ethics commissioner for failing to report a change to his assets within 30 days. Spotted: Everyone, marking the start of the parliamentary session at the Earnscliffe/iPolitics bash which took over — where else? — the Met Monday night. | | TRIVIA | |
Monday’s answer: At their confab in June, Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND gave U.S. Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN a piece of limestone from Centre Block with a maple leaf carved into it. They also gave her a French edition of a book written by her husband, Nobel laureate GEORGE AKERLOF, ordered from a Montreal bookstore.
What the DPM did not give Yellen: Stamps. Props to LAURA JARVIS. Tuesday’s question: Who said the following words — and on what occasion: “In Quebec I am branded as a Jingo and in Ontario as a Separatist. In Quebec I am attacked as an Imperialist and in Ontario as an anti-imperialist. I am neither. I am a Canadian. Canada has been the inspiration of my life.” 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.
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