Parliament won't wait for Liberals

Jan 17, 2022

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WELCOME TO OTTAWA PLAYBOOK. I'm your host, Nick Taylor-Vaisey. Today is Monday, which means the Hill has two weeks to prepare for the flood of returning politicians. For now, we get committee meetings that might create fireworks. Plus, tributes poured in over the weekend for the late ALEXA MCDONOUGH.

Driving the Day

THE AGENDA-SETTERS — When the Commons sits again on Jan. 31, Government House Leader MARK HOLLAND will wield significant influence over the ebb and flow of politics on the Hill. For now, Liberals are proactively sprinkling cash around the country and responding to global events.

The Conservative-led opposition isn't wasting these frigid January days. They'll always have smaller megaphones than the government, but they cleverly crafted a parliamentary agenda before the Liberals got the chance.

— Unanimous consent: Three emergency committee meetings in as many days produced three bloodless victories for the Official Opposition.

At finance, feisty Tory PIERRE POILIEVRE demanded that Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND and Bank of Canada governor TIFF MACKLEM, along with the bureaucrats who tabulate the consumer price index, explain housing and food inflation. Nobody disputed the importance of the rising cost of living. The meeting lasted 40 minutes.

At ethics, JOHN BRASSARD moved to haul Health Minister JEAN-YVES DUCLOS and Chief Public Health Officer THERESA TAM before the committee to defend a Public Health Agency program that harnesses Canadians' mobility data. The meeting ran the full two hours, but nobody dissented when Brassard's motion came to a vote.

At health, LUC BERTHOLD hoped to hear from Duclos, Tam and everyone else leading the federal Covid response: deputy minister of health STEPHEN LUCAS; Public Health Agency President HARPREET S. KOCHHAR; PHAC VP for vaccine logistics and operations Brig.-Gen. KRISTA BRODIE; and National Advisory Committee on Immunization chair SHELLEY DEEKS. NDP MP DON DAVIES joked that the committee was in "violent agreement" on questioning the officials.

— No incentive to disagree: There is plenty of opportunity for Liberal filibustering and opposition badgering of witnesses, but peace broke out at every committee — no one on the government side was about to disagree with the urgency of holding ministers to account on issues that legitimately concern their constituents.

— A nearly perfect week: If only the Tory leader, ERIN O'TOOLE, hadn't hoovered up so much attention for a bad-faith screed at the Centennial Flame. O'Toole warned Canadians that Environment Minister STEVEN GUILBEAULT wanted to phase out fossil fuels in the next 18 months.

During an interview, Guilbeault dropped a key word when talking about an end to fossil fuel subsidies, a well-known Liberal position he'd already stated in the same conversation. It was clear to everyone he just missed the word, which O'Toole separately admitted in a Facebook Live video.)

— The big three: Most Canadians don't watch parliamentary committees, but MPs like Poilievre post any and all ministerial missteps for their fans on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. Duclos will face his first and second grillings as health minister, and the Tories will generate headlines on three key issues: price inflation, privacy rights and Covid response.

— First up: The finance committee meets today at 2:30 p.m. Witnesses are ANIL ARORA, the chief statistician of Canada; GREG PETERSON, the assistant chief statistician for economic statistics; and HEIDI ERTL from StatsCan's consumer prices division. Watch it here.

IN MEMORIAM

Alexa McDonough thanks her granddaughter, Abbie Jean McDonough, after announcing she will not be seeking re-election in 2008

Alexa McDonough thanks her granddaughter, Abbie Jean McDonough, after announcing she will not be seeking re-election in 2008. | Photo by Mike Dembeck/CP

"IF NOT FOR ALEXA" — ALEXA MCDONOUGH died Saturday at the age of 77, after a long battle with Alzheimer's. McDonough was born in Ottawa, where her father, LLOYD SHAW, worked as a CCF researcher. But she first made her mark in Nova Scotia as provincial NDP leader.

McDonough took over the federal party leadership in 1995, and following the 1997 election, returned to Ottawa with a reenergized party caucus — including a remarkable six seats in Nova Scotia. She never achieved a serious electoral breakthrough, but McDonough's national popularity at the voting booth will never be the true measure of her impact.

As remembrances rolled in over the weekend, four words echoed like a refrain: "If not for Alexa …"

Conservative MP MICHELLE REMPEL GARNER: "I was born the year Alexa became the first woman to lead a major political party in Canada. I was 15 when she became leader of the federal NDP. She showed a generation of women like me that we have a place in politics."

Former Conservative cabinet minister LISA RAITT: "I wouldn't have grown up in NS with the belief that women belonged in politics but for Alexa McDonough."

Foreign Affairs Minister MÉLANIE JOLY: "Alexa McDonough was a pioneer in politics, she paved the way for so many women, like me, to enter public service."

Conservative MP LAILA GOODRIDGE: "She shattered barriers and did everything with a profound level of respect and kindness."

NDP MP LEAH GAZAN: "Thank you for creating space for more of us to take a seat."

WWF-Canada president and CEO MEGAN LESLIE: "My unending gratitude to her family who supported her so she could be so many things to so many of us. She was a role model, and a mentor. She will be missed by many."

Former MP and city councilor OLIVIA CHOW: "Often Alexa stood alone in her battles — but no more. May Alexa's life continue to inspire future generations of women leaders to create a better, more just and a more equal Canada."

ALEXA'S FIRST SPEECH — McDonough was no rookie politician when she stepped onto the floor of the House of Commons in 1997. Seventeen years earlier, McDonough made history when she took the reins of the provincial MP, the first woman to head a major Canadian political party.

Like many MPs, McDonough opened her maiden speech in the House by congratulating then-Speaker GILBERT PARENT on his re-election to the chair — perfunctory remarks that typically fade into Hansard.

But this was no ordinary politician. McDonough aimed her next remarks squarely at the speaker's chair.

"Over the last year and a half as I have served as leader of the New Democratic Party without a seat in Parliament, I have looked on with some frustration and some horror as I have watched the deteriorating conditions for some of the people who are serving us here on Parliament Hill," she said. "In particular, I have felt a great deal of consternation at the spectacle of hundreds of locked out security guards."

She didn't blame Parent for the nearly year-long labor dispute on the Hill. In her view, that lay with the Liberal government that had locked out the guards and hired replacement workers. But what stands out 25 years later is McDonough's focus on actual people. She could have launched into a spirited defense of a signature platform promise. Or reflected on the gravitas of the room in which she rose.

McDonough's biggest priority at that moment was the people who worked on the Hill. The rest of the speech was vintage McDonough. She celebrated Halifax, lamented Liberal budget cuts — see: a broken promise to introduce a national child care program — and argued for economic equality as a key ingredient to national unity.

— Taking off the gloves: McDonough is widely remembered as a compassionate force for good who chose kindness over the alternative. But like any talented politician, she wasn't immune to the occasional zinger. From her maiden speech:

"I only wish that the prime minister would devote as much attention to the creation of jobs as he devotes to the creation of senators."

More on McDonough:

— Veteran journalist JOHN DEMONT's remembrance of McDonough opens with a long ago press gallery dinner. She could've escorted a star to the gala. "Yet instead of choosing a well-known journalistic face, she invited someone she knew from Halifax, a new kid on the Hill, desperate to build the kind of gravitas that would make people return his calls."

— Read an excerpt from Stephen Kimber's new biography: Alexa! Changing the Face of Canadian Politics.

In a message posted Saturday, TRAVIS MCDONOUGH shared life advice he and his brother Justin learned from their mom. Here are a few lessons of the many:

— "Join a cause and dedicate your life to it. Not because it has a high chance of success, but because it stirs your soul."

— "How you treat people who can do nothing in return is the ultimate judge of your character."

— "What you do yourself, you take with you. What you do for others, you leave behind."

— "Be grateful. Everyday."

AROUND THE HILL

ONE HOUR, NO TALKING POINTS — THE HERLE BURLY with ELLY ALBOIM is a must listen for anyone who works around the Hill.

Alboim, who served as CBC's parliamentary bureau chief and a senior adviser to former prime minister PAUL MARTIN, is an associate professor at Carleton and a principal at Earnscliffe Strategies.

The Herle Burly begins with a lengthy discussion of journalism and a meander to consider if the CBC should kill The National — and ends with some new thoughts on the Gomery Commission.

Near the close of the pod, DAVID HERLE asks a question we all wonder: "Why does the government have their ministers on 24-7 talking points?"

— Herle's preamble: "Every single minister who's come on The Herle Burly, people have said, 'Holy Christ, that person is smart. That person has interesting ideas. That person's articulate. That person has an interesting background. That person impresses me.' And it's because they get to talk for an hour and say things that they think and they believe — and they're not on talking points."

Ministers who have sat with Herle include ANITA ANAND, CATHERINE MCKENNA, SEAMUS O'REGAN and JONATHAN WILKINSON.

— Herle's question: "Why don't they let them talk more?"

— Alboim's answer: "Oh, David. That's such a complicated question," he replies. "How many opportunities do ministers have to have an hour-long conversation in detail — with anybody in the public domain that's not going to end up edited, chopped and retransmitted in some way."

Alboim, who works in strategic communications, suggests it comes down to risk avoidance. The outings require "real nerve," he said — and permission to take the risk.

"If we provided significant opportunity for it, then I think people would rise to it," he said.

"But when everything is chopped and sliced, the dangers and the cost-benefit analysis always comes out in the wrong way. The opportunity to screw up or to be misrepresented is so much larger than the opportunity to be properly understood."

— Playbook's solution: We also have an hour for any Cabinet minister who wants to talk. Ground rules, as above: One hour, no talking points with comprehensive coverage in the Playbook and a quick link to a full transcript online.

If you're a Cabinet minister and you're game for a chat with Playbook, email us. We're all ears.

TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS

— 8:30 a.m. Statistics Canada will release its monthly survey of manufacturing for November.

— 10 a.m. The Bank of Canada will release its latest Business Outlook Survey. The poll, which includes a business sentiment indicator, will give the country a sense of corporate Canada's take on the latest twists in the pandemic.

— 2:40 p.m. Conservative leader ERIN O'TOOLE will hold a news conference in West Block.

HOUSE BUSINESS

— 2:30 p.m. The House finance committee will hear from three key players at Statistics Canada: Anil Arora (chief statistician), Greg Peterson (assistant chief statistician) and Heidi Ertl (director, consumer prices division).

PERSPECTIVES

Skaters round the bend on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa

A crisp evening on the skateway's opening weekend | Photo courtesy of Yasir Naqvi

YAS-NAQ INDEX — Playbook enlisted Ottawa Centre MP YASIR NAQVI, the parliamentary secretary for emergency preparedness whose riding includes a long stretch of the Rideau Canal, to be our opening-weekend correspondent from the surface of the skateway:

"It was freezing in Ottawa this weekend — the kind of cold that only the sun can make bearable. Luckily, sunshine was in large supply on the Rideau Canal for its opening weekend.

"The benefit to plunging temperatures is that the conditions on the canal were great, and folks took full advantage, including some brave ones in the evening under the moonlight!"

If you're feeling inspired by what — or who — you see out skating on the canal, send us your reports. VIP sightings welcome.

MEDIA ROOM

— On The Writ, ÉRIC GRENIER scored an interview with outgoing PMO research and advertising guru DAN ARNOLD. They talk about the wild polling swing at the dawn of Covid and how it felt when most people were actually paying attention to politics. Arnold explains how polling actually feeds campaign strategy, with a shoutout to former Liberal MP MIKE BOSSIO's surprise win in rural Ontario. And Grenier nerds out on a deep dive into the 2021 campaign.

Playbook review: must-listen.

— On CBC's The House, former Liberal health minister JANE PHILPOTT tried to defang a fractious debate over public vs. private healthcare in Canada:

"I think the whole issue of public-private is highly misunderstood, and can often be used as a red herring. … There's all kinds of private delivery of health care. Almost every family doctor is part of a private practise. It's a matter of who pays the bill for the delivery of care, and second of all making sure that nobody jumps the queue based on who's paying and how much they're paying. Access to care has to be based on medical need and not the ability to pay."

— "Nearly every province has seen its health system pushed to the breaking point in recent weeks due to the Omicron variant," JUSTIN LING writes for Maclean's. "All the promises that we've heard for two years about using the ebb between waves to prepare have turned to sand."

— In the Star, SUSAN DELACOURT has an opinion on 24 Sussex that has a distinctively different flavor than historian J.D.M. STEWART's plea for renovation and revival in Playbook last week. Delacourt's idea? "Tear it down."

— STEPHEN VAN DINE, senior VP of public governance at the Institute on Governance, writes for iPolitics on the waning influence of deputy ministers.

— Former mayors NAHEED NENSHI and DON IVESON joined KATHLEEN PETTY's pod to talk about political discourse and trigger politics. It's another must-listen that includes references to SUSAN SONTAG, ROBERT PUTNAM and RUTGER BREGMAN.

PLAYBOOKERS

Birthdays: HBD to Liberal MP KODY BLOIS and former Alberta deputy premier DOUG HORNER. … Belated greetings to BRANDON CLIM, senior communications adviser at Environment and Climate Change Canada. … Happy 60th to JIM CARREY, who once played a politician on a notable sketch comedy show.

Birthdays or other social notices for the Playbook community? Send them our way.

From the tenders: Environment Canada, counting worms. … Parks Canada, commissioning a reno with one of the most beautiful views in the country. … The Correctional Service, hiring an ethics consultant.

Spotted: Canada's High Commissioner to India CAMERON MACKAY, newly arrived. … CTV's DAWN WALTON, celebrating at Lake Louise. … Former Cabinet minister MARC GARNEAU, out and about: "Finding a time everyday to go for a walk, to breathe fresh air and to think. Sounds old fashioned but feels good."

Movers and shakers: MICHAEL GOULD joined Navigator's Toronto office as a senior consultant. He previously worked for Winnipeg Mayor BRIAN BOWMAN and RALPH EICHLER, a former Progressive Conservative minister of economic development and training in Manitoba.

Media mentions: KYLE EDWARDS, a journalist from the Lake Manitoba First Nation and Wallace Stegner fellow at Stanford University, will deliver Western University's Clissold Lecture on Thursday. The topic: Reporting on Indigenous communities in a post-Covid world.

PROZONE

For subscribers, here's the latest edition of the Pro Canada PM by ZI-ANN LUM: The week ahead: Everything, all at once.

Pro briefing takeaways: 2022 legislative outlook.

— Democrats start building their 2022 case assuming BBB will fail.
— Regulator: Canada's banks have 'no time to waste' on climate risk.
— Biden administration to start offering free at-home Covid tests Jan. 19.
— IEA advises Canada to increase clean energy funding.
— Bitcoin crashes the midterms.

SAVE THE DATE — Playbook's second virtual trivia night is Jan. 27 at 8 Eastern. We have about 10 tables left to reserve. RSVP at ottawaplaybook@politico.com. We'll send you instructions on how to set yourselves up for the night — and, maybe, #cdnpoli trivia supremacy.

TRIVIA

Friday's answer: Conservative MP JOHN WILLIAMSON was an original member of the National Post's editorial board.

Props to BRAM ABRAMSON, GREGORY THOMAS, ALAN KAN, WAYNE FLEMING, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, LEIGH LAMPERT, JOSEPH PLANTA, JOHN GUOBA and WALTER ROBINSON.

Today's question: What sitting MP was most recently an ER physician and also worked as a consultant for the World Health Organization?

Send your answers to ottawaplaybook@politico.com

Playbook wouldn't happen without Luiza Ch. Savage and editor Sue Allan.

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