From one countdown to another

From: POLITICO Ottawa Playbook - Monday Dec 11,2023 11:10 am

Dec 11, 2023

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By Kyle Duggan, Sue Allan and Nick Taylor-Vaisey

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Welcome to Ottawa Playbook. Let's get into it.

In today’s edition:

→ Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. is laying the groundwork for Canada’s post-2024 bilateral relationship.

→ Speaker GREG FERGUS will defend himself at committee later today amid calls for his resignation.

→ The lowdown on the season’s political ho-ho-ho-holiday parties.

DRIVING THE DAY

Kirsten Hillman walks on a terrace outside her office at the Canadian Embassy.

Canada's envoy to the United States, Kirsten Hillman, in D.C. last summer. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

A YEAR GOES BY FAST — Just 330 days left until the U.S. picks its next president.

Like everyone else in D.C., that’s what’s preoccupying KIRSTEN HILLMAN’s time these days.

Canada’s ambassador to the United States has spent the past few months traveling to five different states, and is heading off early next year to several more, including Nevada and Arizona and Orange County, California.

— Expand the network: She and Canada’s consuls general are on a mission that’s one part reconnaissance, one part advertising.

“It's about getting to know the folks and getting the messages out there,” the former trade negotiator said in an interview at her office a stone’s throw from the U.S. Capitol building.

— ‘Deliberate, systematic, strategic’ work: “This is pages of spreadsheets and databases, and circling back with each other,” she tells Playbook.

The consulates are spread out — from Seattle to Dallas, Los Angeles to New York, but they work together, she explained.

“One team member may have very good contacts into a particular community, or group of advisers, or group of Americans that is useful to a team member in another part of the country. So, it's also a feedback loop that we've created, which is very effective.”

There is ground to cover before Nov. 5 in a presidential election year like no other.

Former U.S. President DONALD TRUMP is the presumed frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and could square off in a rematch against President JOE BIDEN.

The stakes and consequences are an obsession in Washington and beyond — and Hillman has to prep Canada’s presence in the capital for either scenario.

During an interview with POLITICO Canada, Hillman offered her take on the Canada-U.S. relationship at the close of a wild year, on the cusp of what could be an even wilder 2024. The full interview is available on POLITICO Pro, but here are some highlights:

→ As Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU calls out a creeping MAGA influence into Canadian politics, Hillman said that hasn’t registered as a blip on the radar south of the border.

“I've been meeting with [my Democratic and Republican contacts on the Hill] regularly and no one has raised that as an issue or concern.”

→ The past year was full of outrage over Canada pushing ahead with a controversial digital services tax and underspending on NATO, labor disruptions at transit hubs that hit U.S. companies — and a surprise explosion at the international Rainbow Bridge crossing.

But the biggest challenge as Hillman sees it? The summer of wildfires that fanned thick, oppressive smoke into major U.S. cities, throwing the Canada shop into comms overdrive.

“People really paid attention to those fires in a way that they wouldn't have otherwise.”

“While it was very disruptive to have smoke here in the United States, there were thousands of Canadian communities that were evacuated. People lost their homes and they lost their businesses, so we need to put that into context.”

For her team, that meant a lot of outreach. “Otherwise what's happening will be interpreted through a U.S. lens, U.S. commentators and U.S. media,” she said.

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For your radar

COMING VERY SOON — The new federal dental insurance plan will be phased in gradually over 2024, with the first claims likely to be processed in May, government officials leaked to Laura Osman of The Canadian Press on Sunday evening.

Senior officials who did not want to be named told CP that applications could open as early as next week, starting with qualifying seniors over the age of 87.

A formal announcement is scheduled for this morning.

In other developments:

— ALESSIA PASSAFIUME of The Canadian Press reports that Indigenous Services Minister PATTY HAJDU is poised to table legislation to improve water quality in First Nations communities.

— ASHLEY BURKE of CBC News reports that Minister of Sport CARLA QUALTROUGH is ready to announce how the government will review systemic abuse and human rights violations in sports.

THREE THINGS WE'RE WATCHING

NOT-SO-LUXE SEAT FOR THE SPEAKER — Partisan swords are set to cross this morning over whether Speaker GREG FERGUS should be punished for his video message to a partisan convention.

The House procedure committee is set to hear from acting Commons Clerk ERIC JANSE and other top procedural officials, before Fergus appears to defend himself amid calls to step down.

Ontario Liberal MPP JOHN FRASER and OLP returning officer SIMON TUNSTALL are also set to appear.

— Quick turnaround: NDP House Leader PETER JULIAN said Friday he’s seconded to the committee and the timeline is “very, very short.”

PROC must report back to the House by Thursday, which means producing their report by Tuesday night.

— The background: The Conservatives and Bloc have called on Fergus to resign because he made a personal video address for Fraser that was played at the provincial Liberal convention. The office of the speaker is supposed to be nonpartisan.

Fergus apologized last week, but then a new video emerged from Washington of him talking about his past as a Liberal, setting off a chorus of complaints all over again.

— Rare scandal follows rarer scandal: It’s the second major political gaffe to rock the office in as many speakers. Although,the last scandal captivated the world’s attention, not just Ottawa’s parliamentary precinct.

MORE COMMITTEE DRAMA — The sked for hearings has several other don’t-miss guests slated for the week already.

Innovation DM SIMON KENNEDY appears to talk Sustainable Development Technology Canada, a clean-tech foundation created by the government that’s found itself embroiled in a crippling conflict-of-interest funding scandal.

Tuesday, ANNETTE VERSCHUREN,former SDTC board chair, is back in the hot seat.

Interim Ethics Commissioner KONRAD VON FINCKENSTEIN is investigating her for approving funds to a firm she heads and,according to a social media post by Conservative MP MICHAEL BARRETT, von Finckenstein has launched a second investigation into board member GUY OUIMET at Barrett’s urging.

— Tech time: Ottawa lawmakers are set to haul the tech giants into committee — virtually, at least — later this week before everyone packs it in for the holiday period.

The House ethics committee will get video appearances Wednesday afternoon by heads of public policy and regulatory affairs for Meta, Google and X Corp.

That includes appearances by Meta’s RACHEL CURRAN and Google’s JEANETTE PATELL.

The study, titled “use of social media platforms for data harvesting and unethical or illicit sharing of personal information with foreign entities,” has already heard from Canadian intelligence agencies, Privacy Commissioner PHILIPPE DUFRESNE, and reps from TikTok.

The Treasury Board Secretariat banned TikTok on government phones earlier this year and more recently followed up with the same for WeChat.

— Notable elsewhere: Top execs from Medicago appear around lunchtime, days after the government announced it would recover some of the money it gave the firm for a failed Covid-19 vaccine project.

ADVANCE THE BALL — For the governing Liberals, this week is all about how much last-minute business the government can push down the playing field before the holiday curtains come down on the House.

Last week’s end-of-year opposition antics earned the Conservatives plenty of media for standing up against the carbon tax and pledging to ruin the PM’s holidays, while the Liberals compared the situation to U.S.-style, government-shutdown brinkmanship.

— Sabres rattled: The marathon votes killed more than a day of government business last week, boasted Conservative House Leader ANDREW SCHEER, who vowed in a video at the end of it all to keep fighting this week.

— But, but, but: The Commons is set to wrap up by no later than Friday.

— The bird’s-eye: Several bills are nearing the finish line in the green chamber, and the Liberals are looking to soon send C-56, the affordable housing and groceries act, off to the Senate. Bill C-57, the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement act, which has faced unexpected opposition from the Conservative Party, is also getting priority treatment.

The Liberals want to wrap second-reading debate of their anti-scab legislation,Bill C-58, and hand it off to committee, and progress the Fall Economic Statement measures contained in Bill C-59.

The Canada sustainable jobs bill,C-50, which Conservatives had delayed at natural resources committee, is also poised to return to the House.

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TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS

— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU will spend the day in private meetings until 5 p.m. when he delivers remarks at Hanukkah on the Hill.

— Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND has plans to attend Question Period. She will otherwise be in private meetings until she joins the PM at the Hanukkah celebration.

— NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH is in Toronto to talk up the party’s dental care plan.

For your radar

HOLIDAY CIRCUIT — If PIERRE POILIEVRE really wanted to wreak havoc on the Liberal festive spirit, he'd have chosen this week for around-the-clock House votes.

The Liberals host their Laurier Club holiday fundraising bash for top donors tonight at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau. Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU and nearly half his Cabinet will join the festive fun across the river at 6 p.m.

— In the room: TERRY BEECH, CHRYSTIA FREELAND, RANDY BOISSONNAULT, GUDIE HUTCHINGS, ARIF VIRANI, BILL BLAIR, JENNA SUDDS, LAWRENCE MACAULAY, RECHIE VALDEZ, FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE, FILOMENA TASSI, KAMAL KHERA, CARLA QUALTROUGH, PATTY HAJDU, YA'ARA SAKS and SORAYA MARTINEZ FERRADA.

— More Liberal boozing: The party's MPs, staff, donors and friendly lobbyists will head over to the Shaw Centre tomorrow for a holiday party (note: not a fundraiser).

— Even more Liberal boozing: The Shaw party will branch out into two afterparties.

The Hill's "Quebec assistants" will take over Lowertown Brewery, where there is no cover but coat check costs C$4. Live band karaoke downstairs, DJ upstairs. This is also not a fundraiser, unless pulling money up out of a wallet counts (it's a cash bar).

Crestview's SAM O'GRADY and ALEX BYRNE-KRZYCKI are organizing an afterparty at Hyde Bar, where tickets go for C$15 but food and drinks are provided — with all proceeds going to the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

— Conservatives party, too: Tories are heading to Lansdowne Park's Horticulture Building on Wednesday to ring in the festive season. No lobbyists or media allowed.

Thursday takes Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE to Toronto, where he'll attend a 6:15 p.m. holiday fundraiser at a private residence in Forest Hill.

— One more Liberal party: Trudeau is in Vancouver Thursday for a 6 p.m. fundraiser at the Westin Bayshore. He'll be joined by ministers HARJIT SAJJAN, MARY NG and DIANE LEBOUTHILLIER.

MEDIA ROOM

— The Star’s ALTHIA RAJ writes: “MPs are weaponizing social media to create outrage. That's putting their colleagues in danger.”

— “We are now down to ‘crunch time’ and negotiations will start pushing into the round-the-clock sessions,” Green Party Leader ELIZABETH MAY writes from COP28.

— From POLITICO's SUZANNE LYNCH: How close is the COP28 finish line?

— ALEXANDER PANETTA of CBC News reports back from a conversation with U.S. Ambassador DAVID COHEN that the U.S. is “beginning” to talk about renewing the North American trade pact.

— NIIGAAN SINCLAIR writes in the Winnipeg Free Press: AFN’s new national chief takes over troubled, bitterly divided organization.

— From the Globe’s TANYA TALAGA: The task of rescuing the Assembly of First Nations begins now.

— Former Alberta Premier JASON KENNEY in an interview with the The Telegraph says Justin Trudeau, academics and the media have made Canada into a “warning sign” for other countries, as it marches at the vanguard of “many of the more destructive obsessions of the left.”

— POLITICO’s GIOVANNA COI writes on the housing crisis in Europe.

— The New York Times reports that giant goldfish are menacing the Great Lakes.

— And from POLITICO’s STEVEN SHEPARD: Why NIKKI HALEY polls better against JOE BIDEN than DONALD TRUMP does.

PROZONE

For POLITICO Pro s, our latest policy newsletter by KYLE DUGGAN: Sound and fury in West Block.

In other news for Pro readers:

— Building wind power, canceling coal — it’s all drowning under borrowing costs

— EU urges COP28’s oil chief to ‘lead’ on fossil fuel phaseout.

— Azerbaijan gets nod to host COP29 climate summit.

— Pipeline politics await Biden in Michigan.

— WTO members edge toward ‘disappointing’ digital trade deal.

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Our investments in software, hardware and infrastructure allow us to weave learning from our research into products that can benefit billions of people. We were among the first to pioneer techniques for unsupervised machine translation, which allowed us to introduce a model for translation across 100 languages without relying on English, and which led directly to our No Language Left Behind breakthrough.

Our commitment to open science is a key part of this work. When we aim to share our work openly, it helps us set the highest standards of quality and responsibility, which is the best way for us to help the community build better AI solutions.

PLAYBOOKERS

Birthdays: HBD to former Conservative MP ALAIN RAYES and to U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate JOHN KERRY.

Bonus birthday: Happy 65th to travel maestro SCOTT MCCORD.

Got a document to share? A birthday coming up? Send it all our way.

Spotted: Celebrating Hanukkah at Stornoway on Sunday evening: B'nai Brith Canada’s DAVID GRANOVSKY, MP MARTY MORANTZ, JEFF LIEBERMAN, JOHN DIAMOND, AVIVA POLONSKY and other guests.

A milestone for Conservative JAMIL JIVANI: “Seeing my name on a lawn sign for the first time.”

Toronto Mayor OLIVIA CHOW with a plan to rename Etobicoke stadium after ROB FORD.

The IKEA monkey, trending again.

Via CRAIG BAIRD and an assist from AI: Canadian political leaders, past and present, wearing ugly Christmas sweaters as children.

Movers and shakers: Hay River’s R.J. SIMPSON will be the new Northwest Territories premier.
He told CBC News on Sunday that his territory would also like to be exempted from the carbon tax.

Dr. MARGOT BURNELL will be the Canadian Medical Association’s new president-elect.

KIAVASH NAJAFI starts today as political assistant to Canadian Labour Congress President BEA BRUSKE.

On the Hill

11 a.m. The House foreign affairs committee will focus on Canada’s diplomatic capacity. Witnesses will include BALKAN DEVLEN, director of the transatlantic program at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. MPs will also hear from COLIN ROBERTSON of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, the Société Nationale de l'Acadie, and ARDI IMSEIS from Queen's University.

11 a.m. The House health committee will focus on the opioid epidemic in its first hour. Psychiatry professor KEITH HUMPHREYS will appear first, followed by DAN WERB from the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation. In the second hour, the committee will study the government’s advanced purchase agreement for vaccines from Medicago.

11 a.m. Employment Minister RANDY BOISSONNAULT and Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities KAMAL KHERA will appear during the first hour of the House human resources committee to discuss Supplementary Estimates (B). Housing Minister Sean Fraser and Families Minister JENNA SUDDS will be up in the second hour.

11 a.m. The House committee on official languages is studying economic development of official language minority communities. MPs will hear from Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne, Provincial Employment Roundtable, Conseil de développement économique de l’Alberta, and Société de la francophonie manitobaine.

11 a.m. Conservative MP COLIN CARRIE will be at the House public safety committee to discuss Bill C-320.

3:30 p.m. ROBERT PICKARD will appear at the House committee on the Canada–China relationship. Finance officials will appear in the second half of the meeting.

3:30 p.m. The House agriculture committee continues its study on food prices. Metro President and CEO ERIC LA FLÈCHE will be in the hot seat. Also due to appear Association des producteurs maraîchers du Québec, Canadian Produce Marketing Association, Centre for Future Work.

3:30 p.m. The House transport committee will take Bill C-33 through clause-by-clause consideration.

3:30 p.m. The House status of women committee will focus on clause-by-clause consideration of Bill S-205.

Behind closed doors: The House finance committee will spend the day and evening behind closed doors talking about its pre-budget consultations.

TRIVIA

Friday’s answer: On Dec. 8, 2013, METALLICA played in Antarctica and became the first to perform on every continent.

Props to SARA MAY, RODDY MCFALL, DOUG RICE, ALYSON FAIR, CAMERON RYAN, JIM CAMPBELL, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, DARREN MAJOR, MARCEL MARCOTTE, SEAN MOORE, MICHAEL POWELL, STEPHEN KAROL, BOB GORDON, GEORGE SCHOENHOFER and QASIR DAR.

Today’s question: Why is the Union Jack flying on federal buildings today?

Send your answer to ottawaplaybook@politico.com

Playbook wouldn’t happen without: POLITICO Canada editor Sue Allan, editor Willa Plank and Luiza Ch. Savage.

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