LABOR DAY — SEAMUS O'REGAN will make his case for a new era in labor relations to a business crowd today at Toronto's Royal York Hotel. O'Regan will deliver today’s lunchtime keynote to the Empire Club of Canada, where tables of 10 sell for C$950 apiece, plus HST. Canada's labor minister wants to ban replacement workers in federally regulated industries, like ports and railways. The decades-old ask from unions has found its moment as Bill C-58 in the House of Commons, where everybody wants to own the working-class vote. The minister will attempt to win over the room with an “economic update.” The official topic: "how business, labor and government can work together to address structural changes in the labor market and grow the economy amidst inflation, energy transition, automation and other challenges." — A sensitive time: O'Regan's appeal to the Empire Club comes at a moment of flux in continental labor relations. High-profile strikes have caused headaches for a government that doesn't want to be seen taking sides. Meanwhile, PIERRE POILIEVRE is working overtime to woo the working class and figure out how to respond to C-58. — Is this balance? The same day in November that O'Regan introduced C-58 in the House, he invited key allies to a cozy evening reception in his Confederation Building office. Labor leaders schmoozed with Liberal MPs and staffers before the minister hopped up on a chair to make brief remarks lauding the determination of the people in the room. This was not an evening for notably absent business voices that loudly opposed the bill. Take the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, which said a ban would "destroy" the balance at bargaining tables by removing the incentive of workers to negotiate. The Chamber and its allies claim a ban would lead to more strikes. Nonsense, said O'Regan in an interview with Playbook a room away from the buzz of the reception: "It's just that we were used to the table kind of being a little slanted. When it's always the way it's been, and it has been for God knows how long, well over 100 years in this country, it doesn't necessarily make it right." — The art of persuasion: O'Regan insists C-58 was a platform commitment in 2021, which is partly true. The Liberals campaigned on banning replacement workers when companies lock out their workers. They were silent on replacing workers who hit the picket lines of their own accord. Along came the Liberal-NDP supply and confidence agreement, which tucked in a promise to ban all replacement workers in federally regulated industries. O'Regan heaped credit on NDP MPs ALEXANDRE BOULERICE and DANIEL BLAIKIE for informing his thinking. He said meetings with CAROLINE SENNEVILLE from the Confédération des syndicats nationaux had a "deep effect" on him. "I come at it with empathy, a certain amount of logic. And that's what drove me to believe that this is the right thing to do," he told Playbook. "But I don't come at it from experience." CURIOUS CONSERVATIVES — It's unclear how the Tories will vote on C-58. Industry critic RICK PERKINS and labor critic CHRIS LEWIS both spoke at length during House debate, but they never took a clear position on the bill. Poilievre's office offered little clarity when Playbook asked Wednesday. DAVID TARRANT's takeaway: don't be surprised if it takes a minute. Tarrant, a comms strategist for both STEPHEN HARPER and DOUG FORD who played a big role in TIM HOUSTON becoming premier of Nova Scotia, said Poilievre is reconciling his own long-held positions with winning the blue-collar vote. "I think Pierre would be the first one to say that political leadership has dilemmas like this," he says. — Poilievre's past: Liberals often share a decade-old Star column by TIM HARPER in which Poilievre boasts that he was the "first federal politician to make a dedicated push" for right-to-work laws championed by Republicans. Those laws allowed unionized workers to opt out of strikes or dues payments. Poilievre also supported Harper-era private members' bills that demanded unions open up their books. The unions hated them. PressProgress dug up all the details. Tarrant says Poilievre understands the "shifting sands" in the working class that also helped reelect Ford in 2022. Key point: there are votes to be won. "He wants to do right by them, while staying true to some high-level general principles that in his core he believes are best for the country," says Tarrant. "If it was easy, anybody could do it." | 
