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Presented by Shaw Communications: A daily look inside Canadian politics and power. | | | | |  | | By Joseph Gedeon and Nick Taylor-Vaisey | | | Send tips | Subscribe here | Follow Politico Canada Thanks for reading Ottawa Playbook. We're your hosts, Joseph Gedeon and Nick Taylor-Vaisey. Today, a scooplet on Nexus from a Canada-focused Washington lawmaker. Plus, Parliament is back from a long holiday break. But first, a date for your calendar.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | |
’TIS THE SEASON — We’re thrilled to announce our next Playbook Trivia Night is booked for the evening of March 1 at the Metropolitain.
— A topical theme: We don’t know when exactly JOE BIDEN will arrive in Canada for his first in-person visit as president, but we’ll mark the first day of the unofficial Month of Biden with a special edition of trivia co-presented by the U.S. Embassy. There will be six rounds of Canada-U.S. questions. For one special round, Playbook will hand the quizmaster mic to Ambassador DAVID COHEN! Registration is open now. Space is limited. RSVP via this Google Form. Please don't send your RSVP via email. (Please do email us with news tips, gossip and everything else we're dying to know.) We’ll likely hit capacity before noon. Don't delay! NEXUS NO-BRAINER —Virtual interviews for NEXUS applications could become a permanent feature of cross-border travel, if U.S. lawmakers pass new legislation in their quest to reduce a crippling application backlog. The new bill from Rep. BRIAN HIGGINS aims to allow the Secretary of Homeland Security to make video conferencing available to new and renewing NEXUS applicants.
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Rep. Brian Higgins wants to update Nexus. | House Television via AP | Higgins will unveil details of the “Make NEXUS Work Act” this morning at the Peace Bridge between Buffalo, New York, and Fort Erie, Ontario — a perennial symbol of cross-border cooperation and economic integration. “It's just simply taking advantage of what we've learned over the past 36 months: that working virtually is a situation that is likely to stay for a long period of time,” Higgins told POLITICO. “And applying new uses for technology that wasn’t available to us a decade ago.” The NEXUS program is planning to launch a new enrollment option for air travelers by spring, which could help reduce a backlog that ballooned amid a dispute over legal protections for American customs agents who conduct NEXUS interviews in Canada. — A security threat? Some experts see an opportunity for virtual interviews to make life easier for border-crossers — if the Department of Homeland Security and the Canada Border Services Agency are able to adapt their systems. "It may be possible in the future to dispense with in-person interviews entirely, depending on how extensively DHS and CBSA can do background vetting and already have applicants in their systems,” said Migration Policy Institute president ANDREW SELEE. "This has been a tendency across immigration processing systems … with some interviews increasingly waived because the data they can access is more than sufficient to verify identity and evaluate risk factors.” Higgins isn't fussed about security concerns. "We’ll have to ensure these interviews are secure and confidential,” he says. — The stats: The NEXUS program is a trusted traveler program meant to expedite land crossings between Canada and the United States. As of May 2021, the estimated number of users stood at 1.7 million, according to CBSA figures. Customs and Border Protection and the CBSA approved 203,000 NEXUS applications between Oct. 1 2022 and Jan. 10, 2023. | | A message from Shaw Communications: Last June, Shaw Communications announced that Videotron will acquire all of Freedom Mobile, which – to be clear – will never be owned by Rogers Communications. As a stronger fourth wireless carrier, Videotron will have all the tools it needs to compete effectively against the national carriers, including critical 5G spectrum. As the Competition Tribunal recently concluded, the new Videotron that will emerge from these transactions will be a more effective competitor than the present-day Freedom. Learn More | | | | | TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS | |
— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU will attend question period. At 6:30 p.m., he will deliver remarks at a Tamil Heritage Month Reception hosted by Scarborough–Rouge Park MP GARY ANANDASANGAREE and Defense Minister ANITA ANAND.
— Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND will also attend QP. She'll hold a 7 p.m. bilateral meeting with THIERRY BRETON, the European Commissioner for Internal Market. They'll hold a working dinner at 7:30. 11:30 a.m. NDP leader JAGMEET SINGH will speak to reporters about his party's priorities for the year. The Canadian Press reports: NDP to call for emergency debate over private health care. 3:30 p.m. Public Safety Minister MARCO MENDICINO is on the witness list to appear at the House industry committee to take questions about a contract awarded by the RCMP to China-linked company, Sinclair Technologies. 3:30 p.m. The House government operations committee meets to launch into a new study looking at federal consulting contracts awarded to McKinsey & Company. | | For your radar | |
THE HOUSE IS BACK — And POLITICO's ZI-ANN LUM has a curtain raiser on the next parliamentary sitting. She starts here: "It’s unclear if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will still be in power at the end of the year."
Read Lum's full preview of a winter and spring's worth of affordability and cost-of-living issues, a report on the 'Freedom Convoy,' a high-stakes budget, a made-in-Canada McKinsey controversy, a spate of policy debates, and a Biden visit. DONOR WATCH — The Liberals are planning a pair of fundraisers for early February. Industry Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE is headlining a Feb. 6 evening with Hochelaga MP SORAYA MARTINEZ FERRADA at Montreal's Château Dufresne. Three days later, Foreign Minister MÉLANIE JOLY is in the Toronto suburbs for an evening with Vaughan-Woodbridge MP FRANCESCO SORBARA at the Montecassino event center. | | HALLWAY CONVERSATION | | | 
Wyatt Sharpe on a previous visit to Ottawa. | Photo courtesy of Wyatt Sharpe | BOY WONDER GOES TO WASHINGTON — It was a relatively cold Friday morning on Capitol Hill as Playbook headed to Le Bon Café to meet an unlikely source. Being a few minutes early, we had time to order an espresso and make sure everything was set up just so in a quiet section, tucked away from D.C. chatter. Not a minute after our scheduled meetup time, in walked our baby-faced interviewee: a journalist in a full suit, complete with shiny shoes and every button buttoned. If you didn't already know, WYATT SHARPE is a 14-year-old Canadian who has amassed a following based on his impressive access to political leaders. Sharpe has scored a number of high-profile interviews for the Wyatt Sharpe Show on YouTube, sitting down with Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU, former national security adviser JOHN BOLTON, Rep. MAXWELL FROST and many, many more. While he was in Washington, Sharpe met the likes of CNN superstars DANA BASH and WOLF BLITZER, and Democratic lawmakers including ADAM SCHIFF and ERIC SWALWELL. In the days after our interview, Sharpe even tracked down a pair of former U.S. House Speakers: NANCY PELOSI and PAUL RYAN. It had been just over a year since Playbook caught up with Sharpe on the Hill in Ottawa. We reunited to find out what he was up to stateside. Joseph Gedeon: So what exactly are you doing here in D.C.? Wyatt Sharpe: The main point of me coming was for my show and for my different interviews. You’ve been able to meet a lot of people here. What have you been talking about? I want to maintain a certain level of coverage of Canadian issues. But the issues that are currently happening in the United States are also very impactful, and impacts people in Canada as well. The conversation seems to be Rep. GEORGE SANTOS and how someone like him got elected to Congress, who has lied about basically every key component about his life. Do you go to school? What do you tell your friends when you miss class? I do. I took two days off to come here. But again, my teachers were super excited about the idea that I was coming. I told them I will be talking to you, and they thought that was cool. | | |
THE BEST ALMOST-WAS — The Writ's ÉRIC GRENIER this morning dropped the latest installment of his collab with DAN ARNOLD's Pollara Strategic Insights. They asked Canadians to pick and rank their favorite politicians. Grenier followed up last week's Best PM ranking post with today's detailed look at the Greatest Opposition Leaders of All-Time.
— Who came out on top? Here are some hints: The most highly ranked opposition leader was born in Quebec but came to prominence in Toronto. Still unsure? This pragmatic lefty once absolutely owned MICHAEL IGNATIEFF on a debate stage. — Worst of the rest: A pair of long-forgotten Conservative leaders, JOHN BRACKEN and ROBERT MANION, were the choice of 0.3 percent of 4,020 adult Canadian respondents — a handful of loyalists apiece. But what really got on Grenier's nerves? That even a single person preferred the former Liberal leader who lost three elections to JOHN A. MACDONALD: "My biggest surprise was EDWARD BLAKE at 0.5 percent. He should've gotten zero," snarked Grenier. Further viewing: Watch Grenier and CBC reporter AARON WHERRY sound off on Blake's ignominious run as a federal politician. | | MEDIA ROOM | |
— APTN’s KENNETH JACKSON and JOSH GRUMMETT report on a two-year investigation into sexual abuse in First Nations. “It’s a national silent epidemic and it’s time to start talking about it.”
— Liberal MP KIRSTY DUNCAN, currently on leave, tells the CBC she faced resistance within her government when she prioritized tackling abuse in sports during her time as the minister for the portfolio. “There should never have been pushback." Duncan also tells DEVIN HEROUX that she exited a decade in gymnastics — “I trained six nights a week, four or five hours a night” — with a lifelong eating disorder. — Top of POLITICO this hour: Schumer plots debt ceiling course against McCarthy: 'We'll win.' — In a piece on the notwithstanding clause, LISA VAN DUSEN offers this description of the state of play: “We are in a period in the evolution of democracy whereby all manner of propaganda — performative, digital, rhetorical — is unleashed hourly to make right seem wrong, bad seem good, absolute BS seem like something other than intelligence-insulting nonsense and democracy itself seem like bedlam.” — Veteran Ontario Liberals want Green MPP MIKE SCHREINER to be their leader, the Star’s ROB BENZIES reports. They penned a letter to that effect. Spoiler: He’s not interested. (Enterprise Canada's MITCH HEIMPEL thinks the biggest winner from the Benzies scoop is NATE ERSKINE-SMITH, who himself called the gambit a "gimmick." Liberal organizer SIMONE RACANELLI has a tough question for one of the co-signers, MPP LUCILLE COLLARD.) Meanwhile, Liberal Ottawa MP YASIR NAQVI says he's "seriously considering" a run. — “We talk about health care in the laziest, most superficial way humanly possible,” COREY HOGAN notes on the latest episode of The Strategists in a conversation about the politics of the issue. — DAVID HERLE brings Newfoundland and Labrador Premier ANDREW FUREY onto the Herle Burly pod. On the agenda: health care reform, Covid culture and the future of Liberals in a country with only a pair of big-L premiers. | | | | A message from Shaw Communications:   | | | | | PROZONE | |
For POLITICO Pro s, here’s our latest policy newsletter from ZI-ANN LUM: Next week’s blame game now.
Also for s: Key dates on Canada's 2023 climate calendar Other headlines for Pro readers:
— At the Pentagon, push to send F-16s to Ukraine picks up steam.
— U.S. lawmakers press to remove oil boss from leading COP28 climate talks.
— Mr. Musk goes to Washington to stump for Twitter and Tesla.
— Why whale deaths are dividing environmentalists — and firing up Tucker Carlson.
— U.S., Netherlands in last-stretch talks on chip export blocks to China. | | PLAYBOOKERS | |
Birthdays: HBD to First Nations leader OVIDE MERCREDI, Conservative MP JOHN WILLIAMSON and former Saskatchewan finance minister JANICE MACKINNON. POLITICO’s BOB HILLMAN also celebrates today.
Movers and shakers: CHARLIE FELDMAN, parliamentary counsel at the Senate,exits the Red Chamber. “I’ll be embarking on a new adventure within the public service,” he shared. LAURENT CARBONNEAU's final day at Universities Canada was Friday. He's now director of policy and research at the Council of Canadian Innovators. — Playbook also noted a pair of former Hill staffers headed to the TONY BLAIR Institute for Global Change. JUSTIN TO, a former policy aide to both JUSTIN TRUDEAU and BILL MORNEAU, starts a new gig as senior director of economic prosperity. JOSEPH PICKERILL, a longtime staffer and former chief of staff to then-infrastructure minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE, is the Blair Institute's executive director of global strategic communications. Pickerill worked in the Cabinet office at 10 Downing Street for three years when Blair was PM. The pair joins another Hill colleague, former PMO head of policy MIKE MCNAIR, who has spent much of the last year at the Blair Institute as global managing director of the advisory team. Spotted: Saturday convoy organizers on the Hill hitting play on a club remix of LANA DEL REY’s “Young and beautiful” … Canada’s ambassador to the WTO NADIA THEODORE, binge-watching This is Us. “It is impossible to stop watching .. .and crying … and laughing … and crying some more. Productivity be damned.” JENNI BYRNE, receiving the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal c/o Tory MP JAKE STEWART. The National Capital Commission, soliciting ideas for SIR GEORGE-ÉTIENNE CARTIER PARK in Ottawa's east end. (The NCC is removing JOHN A. MACDONALD's name from a river parkway, but the reputation of the former PM's partner in nation-building remains intact.) U.S. Ambassador to Canada DAVID COHEN, Mayor MARK SUTCLIFFE, MPs YASIR NAQVI and ARIELLE KAYABAGA at the proclamation of Black History Month in Canada’s capital … Liberal MP ROB OLIPHANT schmoozing with French Ambassador MICHEL MIRAILLET at the French embassy … JUSTIN TRUDEAU rocking jeans and Nike SB Dunk Low Los Angeles Dodgers for caucus (h/t CP’s MICKEY DJURIC). Speaking of Ottawa things, here’s retired Citizen columnist KELLY EGAN weighing in on Wellington: “Open it now. Street belongs to people of Ottawa, not politicians, or the wing-nuts win …” He was responding to this Citizen op-ed. Senator STAN KUTCHER, stopping to notice the simple beauty of a frozen puddle. ANTHONY KOCH in debate about poutine … LISA LAFLAMME, just getting started. Media mentions: Mount Royal University assistant prof GABRIELA PERDOMO is the new editor of J-source. KEVIN MITCHELL penned an ode to the Saskatoon StarPhoenix newsroom that was shared by many who once worked in one. — “This story is, was and will be echoed in newsrooms across the country,” tweeted CTV’s GLEN MCGREGOR. “They are/were wonderful, vibrant places to work, full of personalities who love to tell stories (often, the best ones about themselves).” Farewells: Political legend HAZEL MCCALLION, the mayor of Mississauga for 36 years and never truly retired after she left office in 2014, died Sunday. She was 101. — Ontario Premier DOUG FORD: "There isn’t a single person who met Hazel who didn’t leave in awe of her force of personality." — Former premier KATHLEEN WYNNE: "We actually thought she would never leave us. With her salty laugh and her no-nonsense advice, Hazel McCallion charmed us, chastised us and loved us." — PM JUSTIN TRUDEAU: “My dear friend Hazel was an extraordinary woman who wore many hats: a businessperson, an athlete, a politician, and one of Canada's — and the world’s — longest-serving mayors. Nicknamed ‘Hurricane Hazel’ for her bold political style, she was unstoppable." — Former Trudeau adviser GERRY BUTTS: "Among Hazel McCallion’s many talents, she was a killer closer. The ad she shot for us at the end of the 2015 campaign was hilarious and effective. We ran it during the Jays playoff game and it moved people in the GTA big time." Got a document to share? A birthday coming up? Send it all our way. | | A message from Shaw Communications: Over the past four months, the Competition Tribunal, an independent adjudicative body that was chaired by one of this country’s preeminent Competition Law experts, reviewed thousands of pages of evidence and hours of testimony.
Learn More | | | | | On the Hill | |
— Find the latest House committee meetings here.
— Keep track of Senate committees here. 11 a.m. The House environment committee will meet for its ninth meeting studying Bill S-5. Environment Assistant Deputy Minister JOHN MOFFET is one of four department official witnesses. 11 a.m. Gymnastics Canada CEO IAN MOSS is a witness at the House status of women committee as MPs pick up on their study of women and girls in sport. 11 a.m. The House public accounts committee has televised “committee business” on its schedule before flipping the video feed off to talk about two draft reports. 3:30 p.m. The House Indigenous and northern affairs committee meets to continue its study of Indigenous languages with witnesses including Nunavut Language Commissioner KARLIIN AARIAK. 3:30 p.m. The House veteran affairs committee meets to hear from four department witnesses to launch a new study of a national strategy for veterans employment after service. 4 p.m. The Senate national security committee meets to study Arctic security and defense issues with six department witnesses from crown-Indigenous relations and northern affairs Canada and the auditor general’s office. 5 p.m. The Senate official languages committee meets to study Francophone immigration to minority communities. — Behind closed doors: The House fisheries and oceans committee has “committee business” on its agenda; the House international trade committee will review draft reports of its ArriveCAN and transport of railway containers studies; the House justice committee and its subcommittee on agenda and procedure both have “committee business” on separate agendas; same with the House citizenship and immigration committee; the House agriculture committee meets to discuss its global food insecurity study; the special Canada-China committee meets to also review a draft report. | | TRIVIA | |
Friday’s answer: It was JEAN CHRÉTIEN who said of BILL CLINTON, “When we are alone, I don't call him William J. I call him Bill.”
Props to CHLOEE KONSAM, LESLIE SWARTMAN, BOOTS TAYLOR-VAISEY, ANDRÉ BRISEBOIS, JOANNA PLATER, LAURA JARVIS, RON CREARY, DIANNE SHERRIN, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, LAURA PAYTON, JACQUES STURGEON, BRIAN KLUNDER, NARESH RAGHUBEER and MARTIN CHAMPOUX. Today’s question: What is known both as the “wedding cake” and “Canada’s most beautiful room”? Send your answer to ottawaplaybook@politico.com Playbook wouldn’t happen without: Luiza Ch. Savage, Sue Allan and David Cohen. Want to grab the attention of movers and shakers on Parliament Hill? Want your brand in front of a key audience of Ottawa influencers? Playbook can help. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com.
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