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A daily look inside Canadian politics and power. | | | | |  | | By Nick Taylor-Vaisey, Zi-Ann Lum and Maura Forrest | Ottawa Playbook will not publish Friday. We’ll be back in your inbox first thing Monday. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Nick | Follow Politico Canada Thanks for reading the Ottawa Playbook. I'm your host, Nick Taylor-Vaisey, with Zi-Ann Lum and Maura Forrest. Today, we are angry about winter's lingering misery. Plus, some reflections on that Eurasia Group summit in Toronto. Also, we dip our toes into the polarized debate likely to dog PABLO RODRIGUEZ's planned online harms legislation.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | GTFO, WINTER — Hands up if your lights flickered Wednesday as thundersleet fell from lightning-filled skies and coated every tree in the nation's capital. The storm wrecked the LRT (of course) and knocked out power for thousands of residents. Of course, most of the city's federal politicians were back home, somewhere else. Today's forecast: 9 degrees (that's celsius, for our fahrenheit-minded readers) with occasional sun peeking through the clouds. Montreal-born CBC reporter ALEX PANETTA, basking in the warmth of his D.C. posting, rubbed in the terribly rosy forecast in Washington. Anyway, enough about the weather. It'll be sickeningly humid before we know it. TRUDEAU UNPLUGGED — Ah, the town hall circuit. It's the prime minister's self-declared happy place. Surrounded by friendly faces. Taking friendly-ish questions. The PM's opponents dismiss it all as fluff. His supporters say it's proof-positive he enjoys the job. Wednesday evening found Trudeau in a room that ticked off several boxes. He spoke to students (✓) at a college (✓) in the Greater Toronto Area (✓) who asked about skills training (✓), immigration (✓) and what Trudeau would tell a younger version of himself if he could travel back in time — a personal question (✓) the PM puzzled over and answered a couple of different ways. One takeaway: "The things I look back on and regret were the times I chickened out." Another: "Show up." — The quiet part out loud: At Whitby's Durham College, a project management student who'd recently immigrated from Jamaica pitched a pilot project that would match international students with permanent jobs and a path to permanent residency. "A good idea," remarked the PM. As an aside, Thompson Henny said she'd be happy to fill any vacancies in the PMO. Trudeau then let the room in on his Parliament Hill hiring strategy. "I get to poach from all of the ministers' offices and MPs' offices — their best stars," he said. "Get your foot in the door with RYAN [TURNBULL], and I'll keep an eye out." POILIEVRE IN QUEBEC — The Tory leader tagged along with his deputy leader, LUC BERTHOLD, on a swing through Mégantic–L'Érable. PIERRE POILIEVRE took reporters' questions from a podium at a mining museum before heading off to a sugar shack. He also planned to speak with new Canadians in the region, with supper scheduled for La Face de Boeuf — where the famous 30 oz. prime rib is a steal at C$59.
| | For your radar | | FORMER PM — The Canadian Press reported Wednesday that former prime minister BRIAN MULRONEY, who is 84 years old, is "recovering after undergoing treatment in Montreal for prostate cancer." A statement from Mulroney's daughter, Ontario Transportation Minister CAROLINE MULRONEY, says the former PM expects to be "back to normal in the coming weeks." MULTINATIONAL MATCHMAKER — It was the best cross-border networking in years. Playbook left the Eurasia Group-BMO’s flashy U.S.-Canada Summit in Toronto wondering what the purpose of it was. To import a Davos-style event to North America? To create a new forum for social encounters of the don’t-have-to-report-it-to-the-lobbying-commissioner kind? We asked Eurasia Group president IAN BREMMER to help us understand. He did his level best to explain it. “The U.S.-Canada relationship has been safe, friendly, and mostly taken for granted for decades. And understandably so — the peace dividend after the Cold War translated into less importance for U.S. alliances … and indeed geopolitics more broadly. Unfortunately, that world is gone. The United States and Canada need to build our mutual trust into something more essential for a new global order. We’re hoping an annual U.S.-Canada summit can play a leading role in this process.” We also asked EVAN SOLOMON, the publisher of Eurasia Group's GZERO Media, to tell us why the bonanza of border bros (and gals) gathered at the Ritz-Carlton. "The appetite for it was remarkable. Almost every single person said we need way more of this. We need these conversations more frankly, more openly," he said. "They happen in formal circumstances. They don't happen in a concentrated way. They don't get together in these groups." — What that means in concrete terms: It was a feast of pull-asides. DOUG FORD got talking with KELLY CRAFT, the former U.S. ambo now running for Kentucky governor. MARK GREEN, the head of the Wilson Center think tank, met a pile of attendees. No agendas, no talking points. "Take your tie off" kind of stuff, as Solomon put it. — Speed dating: While 500 delegates nibbled on waves of catered fare on the second floor, the policy action was happening on the fourth, inside private meeting rooms. — Behind closed doors: JOSE FERNANDEZ, the State Department's undersecretary for economic growth, assembled a roundtable of “senior decision makers.” | 
A tweet from a U.S.-Canada Summit breakout session | Photo courtesy of Jose W. Fernandez | — Enhance and spot these Playbookers with a seat at the table: U.S. Ambassador DAVID COHEN, Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association President BRIAN KINGSTON, Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association President FLAVIO VOLPE, Mining Association of Canada President PIERRE GRATTON, Natural Resources Canada director general RACHEL MCCORMICK, Rio Tinto Chief Scientist NIGEL STEWARD, mining executive KELVIN DUSHNISKY, BMO Capital Markets’ RAHIM BAPOO, Lithium Americas President JONATHAN EVANS, Canada Infrastructure Bank CEO EHREN CORY, Martinrea International executive chair ROB WILDEBOER, Honda Canada CEO JEAN-MARC LECLERC, Teck Resources GR head MARCELLA MUNRO, and NRStor chair/CEO ANNETTE VERSCHUREN.
| | TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS | | — Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is in Montreal. — Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND is also in Quebec. 9:30 a.m. Freeland will tour a battery material manufacturing facility in Candiac. 11 a.m. Freeland will deliver remarks and hold a media availability. 12:30 p.m. Freeland will participate in an armchair discussion, hosted by the Chambre de commerce du Montréal métropolitain. 1:20 p.m. Trudeau will visit a local grocery store. He will meet with families and employees. 1:45 p.m. Trudeau will hold a media scrum.
| | | T-RAIN DELAY — On the way back to Ottawa from Eurasia Group's U.S.-Canada Summit, GERRY BUTTS sat on a Via train somewhere outside Trenton, Ont. As his train idled, Butts launched an old-school AMA via Twitter. We scrolled so you don't have to. Q: What are the biggest challenges a PMO can face? "Keeping the main thing the main thing." Q: What do you genuinely miss about being in the PMO? "Nothing really. Glad I had the experience and that it’s over." Q: How can the Liberal party elect a leader from Western Canada in the future? "Leading contender for the next one is from Western Canada." Q: Think we will ever have defense procurement that isn't horrible? "If anyone can figure it out it’s ANITA [ANAND]." Q: Why are there never direct linkages from taxation to spending for "disruption"-type bills? For example, if you put in the carbon tax bill that 100% of $$ must be spent on green energy, it kills the "just a tax grab" pushback. "Finance departments hate hypothecated taxes." Q: Will Trudeau carry lasting damage from his response to the Han Dong mess? "Too soon to tell but I don’t think so." Q: Do you always finish a book once you start it? "Nope. I’m pretty ruthless about putting books down that don’t move me or teach me something interesting. Life is too short and there are too many good books." Q: Best way to deal with biased media? "Everybody has their biases." Q: Via 1? "Yessir."
| | HALLWAY CONVERSATION | | ONLINE SAFETY — PABLO RODRIGUEZ has an unenviable task on his hands. Bill C-11, fondly dubbed the online censorship law by the Conservatives, has nearly cleared all the legislative hurdles in its path. It would regulate online streaming platforms and subject them to Canadian content requirements. Bill C-18, which would require tech giants like Google and Meta to compensate news organizations for linking to their content, is before the Senate. But if you thought those bills were contentious, just wait until the heritage minister tables the Liberals’ long-awaited (and long-delayed) online safety bill, meant to reduce harmful content online. It’s still not clear when the bill will be introduced, though it seems unlikely to materialize until at least Bill C-11 is passed. The Liberals paint the legislation as an effort to make social-media platforms safer, and have said it will focus on hate speech, terrorist content, incitements to violence, child sexual exploitation and non-consensual intimate images. But the bill seems destined to become a lightning-rod for free-speech concerns. Playbook caught up with EMILY LAIDLAW, a Canada Research Chair in cybersecurity law at the University of Calgary and a member of the expert panel that advised the government last year on its approach to online safety legislation. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What do you think will be the basic elements of the bill? I imagine there’s going to be a duty of care or a duty to act responsibly. I think that is likely going to be the framework. And I think that there will be a regulator to investigate and audit companies. And there may be some separate ombudsperson that is more victim-centered. I also wouldn't be surprised if they set out an obligation on platforms to directly take down child sexual abuse material. What does a duty of care actually mean? Let's say that you have a duty of care to manage the risks of harm when it comes to non-consensual disclosure of intimate images. Companies might say, ‘We have certain processes in place to flag this content and we remove this type of illegal content within a certain period of time after notification.’ Or their recommender systems are created so that they’re not pushing content with naked images. Or if things go viral, it might be that there's something to slow it down. So it's not one thing, and I think that's what makes it hard to sell. But it's also what makes it more effective and less rights-infringing. You're saying to a company, ‘You come up with a solution, this is your service, you tell us the steps that you're taking.’ But this won’t actually eliminate this type of material online. Yeah, it's a hard sell to say, ‘We want a product that is imperfect and is oriented to reduce harm.’ But that's the best that we can ask for. And even that would put a huge dent in the toxicity of some of these ecosystems. How do you think the public debate about this legislation is going to play out? I worry it's going to be polarized. That's unfortunate, because I think there's a lot that we agree on about how to address these issues. But the problem is that no matter where we turn, this rubs against freedom of expression. And that's just an explosive issue and seems to push people into polarized positions. Do you have free speech concerns about this bill? If it incentivizes proactive monitoring of content, or just passing on any content that is remotely suspicious to law enforcement, those would be the key privacy concerns for free expression. — Related reading: Porn sites would have a legal duty to verify that users are at least 18 years old under the new legislation, the Globe and Mail’s MARIE WOOLF reported Monday.
| | MEDIA ROOM | | — A new entrant in the Best Prime Minister We Never Had sweepstakes: ERIN O'TOOLE, via the Globe's JOHN IBBITSON. — Also in the Globe, KONRAD YAKABUSKI does his part to build momentum for an eventual FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE run for Liberal leader. "That could be sooner than many think," writes Yakabuski, cryptically. — From The Narwhal: Ontario won’t release document that could show how government chose Greenbelt cuts — CBC reports: Management consultants told Loblaw that GALEN WESTON was underpaid. Weston earned millions more the year after the review. — Apple chief TIM COOK spoke to British GQ about the future of Apple. “My philosophy is, if you’re looking at the phone more than you’re looking in somebody’s eyes, you’re doing the wrong thing,” he advises.
| | | PLAYBOOKERS | | | Birthdays: HBD to Liberal MP BARDISH CHAGGER, Sen. ÉRIC FOREST and former CPC MP GUY LAUZON. Do you have a birthday coming up? Does a colleague? Send us the dates and we'll tell the world. Spotted: Ukrainian Ambassador YULIA KOVALIV and Finnish Ambassador ROY ERIKSSON take a selfie outside the CTV studio … Ontario Treasury Board President PRABMEET SARKARIA, sitting down with former PM STEPHEN HARPER … Former innovation minister NAVDEEP BAINS and his one-time chief of staff, ELDER MARQUES, reunited on a foreign investment panel talk. The Central Park West apartment of the late PETER JENNINGS, on the market for $10.45 million. The Wall Street Journal writes on the listing. The official emblem of the Canadian Coronation, which caught the attention of the d-comm of the leader of the Official Opposition. The greatest curling shot of all time, thrown by Swedish legend NIKLAS EDIN at TD Place Arena in Ottawa. PM TRUDEAU, whose Wednesday itinerary misled the nation. (The daily agenda stated he would be visiting an auto manufacturer in the Greater Toronto Area. The Honda facility that hosted the PM is located in Alliston, which is emphatically not part of the GTA.) Movers and shakers: Friday marked KEITH SHEPPARD's last day as internal comms manager for membership at the Conservative Party. "I won’t be going far, but I will have an update in the near future," the noted Tim's lover told his LinkedIn followers. The Gordon Food Service tapped a lobbyist, GORAN SAMUEL PESIC, to lobby four federal bodies on "the process and timelines as it relates to the approval of work permits for foreign workers to Canada." Farewells: Former prime minister JACINDA ARDERN delivered her final speech in the New Zealand parliament on Wednesday: “When I came here 15 years ago, we spoke about climate change as if it was a hypothetical. But in the intervening years, we have seen firsthand the reality of our changing environment,” she said. “Climate change is a crisis. The one thing I ask of this house is: Please, take the politics out of climate change.” The New York Times has more on her remarks.
| | PROZONE | | If you’re a , don’t miss our latest policy newsletter by ZI-ANN LUM: Coons starts clock on energy taskforce. In other Pro headlines:
— China is ghosting the United States.
— Yellen: IRS spending plan coming this week.
— Banga vows to bring change to World Bank.
— WTO forecasts 1.7 percent growth in world trade this year.
| | On the Hill | | Parliament returns April 17. → Find the latest House committees here → Keep track of Senate committees here
| | TRIVIA | | Wednesday’s answer: First, second and third in the Liberal party leadership vote on this day in 1968: PIERRE TRUDEAU, ROBERT WINTERS, JOHN TURNER. Reader WILLIAM PRISTANSKI writes: “There was a push in the back rooms for second place Robert Winters to drop and support fourth place John Turner. Such a move would have been unprecedented. Some believed that was the best chance to stop Trudeau. Turner’s support was dominated by youth delegates who mostly preferred Trudeau as their second choice. Winters rejected the notion and third place Paul Hellyer withdrew. And the rest is history.” Props to KEVIN BOSCH, LIAM DALY, LAURA JARVIS, FRED PEARSON, SAM MACPHAIL, RALPH LEVENSTEIN, GERMAINE MALABRE, DOUG RICE, GORDON RANDALL, BOB GORDON, NANCI WAUGH, DOUG SWEET and JOHN ECKERS. Today’s question: Name the sitting senator who was previously mayor of Rimouski, Quebec. Send your answer to ottawaplaybook@politico.com 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 Playbook wouldn’t happen: Without Luiza Ch. Savage and Sue Allan.
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