The fixer-uppers of Rockcliffe

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Jun 27, 2024 View in browser   By Nick Taylor-Vaisey Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Ottawa Playbook | Follow Politico Canada Thanks for reading Ottawa Playbook. Let's get into it. In today's edition: → The labor minister reflects on the nation's extended pandemic grumpiness. → The least posh places in Rockcliffe Park. → A viewer's guide to tonight's Biden vs Trump showdown. HALLWAY CONVERSATION 'PEOPLE ARE GRUMPY' — Playbook caught up with Labor and Seniors Minister SEAMUS O'REGAN on a mid-June afternoon in Canada's biggest city. Soon after, O'Regan stopped by a seniors' home for a cup of tea. He was there to support LESLIE CHURCH's run for office. The by-election stunner has upended a summer of low-key BBQs and invited endless speculation about how Liberals can possibly hope to maintain power after the next election. Playbook spoke with O'Regan following his keynote on the care economy at Canadian Club Toronto. We talked about the long hangover of Covid-19 anxiety in Canada, a pain point for the Liberals that smarts even more now that a Conservative will represent Toronto-St. Paul's. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. People really just want to move on from the pandemic. How difficult is it to keep the country's attention on fixing long-term problems in long-term care and elsewhere? I want to move on, but we're not moving on. We think we're moving on, but man, people are grumpy. Like I said in the speech, people's nerves are rubbed raw. Our politics, just our day to day. It affects our economy in certain ways, and it affects our politics in a huge way. People are angry. You come out of it. You think you're carrying on. And then inflation, interest rates, people are stretched. It's irritating. It's more than that. There's a deep anxiety. I think it's important that you at least step back and go, “Why is that?” A lot of it just accumulated over two and a half years spent being afraid of one another. We're not built that way. And then everything that happened during it. I lost my dad. My mom was looking after my dad. Suddenly I'm looking after both of them. Then my dad asked if I could look after my mom. We're all strung. It's an emotional issue. I tap into that. I keep saying that to my Cabinet colleagues, too. Tap into it. We're not like automatons, living in this economy. Amongst ourselves, it is important that we talk about what we've all gone through, because it will allow us to be better leaders. It'll allow us to be more empathetic to what everybody out there is feeling. Is there not enough of that happening in Cabinet? Yeah, we all just keep calm and carry on. All of us do. We're no different. But now and then, it is worth our time to say, "Okay. Why is this happening?" Because we can't allow all this angst and irritation and very real pain to get in the way of some incredible things that did happen during the pandemic. We came together as a country like we rarely have before, and we did look after one another, and we came out of it better than just about any other country I'm aware of. I'm not saying jubilation, but when we say there's no way we can square an energy economy, oil and gas, and climate change — when we really focused our minds, we did do something incredible back there, even though it's difficult to talk about it, because it was so goddamn painful. — More Cabinet candor: Immigration Minister MARC MILLER acknowledged the Liberals' woes at a Wednesday announcement. “We got a message that was loud and clear from Toronto-St. Paul’s that was considered a quote-unquote safe riding,” Miller said. “We should absolutely never take anything for granted as a government. And we need to listen to people who voted and the way they voted, screw our heads on better and then move on.” Where the leaders are — Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is in the Greater Toronto Area with no events on his public itinerary. At 6 p.m., Trudeau is scheduled to meet party donors in Brampton alongside Cabmin and local MP KAMAL KHERA. — Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND is in Toronto with no public events on her itinerary. — Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE and Bloc Québécois Leader YVES-FRANÇOIS BLANCHET have not released public itineraries. — NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH is in Toronto where he'll hold a media avail at the Gamble Playground at 12:45 p.m. to discuss dental care. At 7 p.m., he will attend the Spadina-Fort York NDP nomination meeting. — Green Leader ELIZABETH MAY "will attend private appointments in Ottawa." DULY NOTED — 2:30 p.m. Top officials from national defense, the navy, and procurement hold a virtual tech briefing for reporters on the Canadian Surface Combatant Project ahead of the Friday announcement on the start of construction. Talk of the town An unoccupied home that recently caught fire in Rockcliffe Park. | Nick Taylor-Vaisey ROCKCLIFFE STARK — Ottawa's wealthiest neighborhood is packed with influencers. CEOs, judges, politicians, diplomats, senior bureaucrats and retired power players call each other neighbors in Rockcliffe Park. There's nowhere like it. — Hiding in plain sight: Playbook zigzagged the 'hood with DAVID HENDERSON, a local resident and film producer raising a stink about a notable number of formerly glorious homes in various states of disrepair — some privately owned, others in the hands of foreign missions. One of them, a privately owned but unoccupied home on Crescent Road beside the Tunisian ambassador's residence, was in flames a few days ago — a striking worst-case scenario. — Visual evidence: Henderson's Instagram account, Decrepit Rockcliffe, has spawned hundreds of followers in a matter of weeks, no doubt aided by news coverage. He's had no trouble getting journalists' attention. The Citizen put the story on A1. CTV News swung by. Henderson joined 580 CFRA for a longer conversation. This is now officially a thing. An Ottawa home owned by the Iraqi government that has been vacant for years. | Nick Taylor-Vaisey — A growing list: Henderson points out eerily empty buildings formerly under the care of Algeria, Malawi, Bulgaria and Iraq. A close look reveals peeling paint, cracked shingles, unmown lawns. The long-empty Iraqi building at 187 Lansdowne has a looooong history. Then there's the former home of the Ugandan ambassador at 235 Mariposa, which lies in ruins after it was demolished last October without the proper permits. — Why this matters: Henderson says the aesthetic impact of fallow homes is least important on his list. "It poses a significant health and safety risk to the immediate neighbors, but also to the community at large," he says of the local blight. Exhibit A: That burned-out building on Crescent Road. Henderson is baffled that a community jam packed with the country's power set can't find a way to prevent the decay. — A global-federal-municipal quagmire: Every reported story repeats a version of a tale as old as Ottawa politics. Local councilor RAWLSON KING told the Citizen the city has to "move in concert" with Global Affairs Canada on the foreign-owned buildings. A GAC spokesperson seemed to bounce the ball right back: “We strongly support the efforts of municipalities to work with foreign states in the event there are unkempt properties or any instances of non-compliance,” said JOHN BABCOCK. — Stay tuned: In a future Playbook, we’ll focus on the abandoned ambassadorial residences that have caught the attention of locals. 2024 WATCH Workers unpack equipment near where CNN will host the first presidential debate tonight in Atlanta, Georgia. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images DEBATE NIGHT — Tonight's prime time showdown between JOE BIDEN and DONALD TRUMP may be many things: chaotic, tragic, incoherent, comical, serious, unserious, shallow, bombastic, shall we go on? Here's what we do know. CNN's presidential debate is at 9 p.m., and it's what you'll talk about with friends, family and colleagues tomorrow. — Watch party: Democrats Abroad has booked the Carleton Tavern's upstairs party room at 223 Armstrong St. in Hintonburg. They're inviting all comers, starting at 7 p.m. — What to watch for: POLITICO's ADAM WREN sets the stakes for the debate. Wren will have his eyes and ears on a few things: → Silent mic: CNN will cut Biden and Trump's microphones after their allotted time has expired. Most modern televised debates collapse into over-talking as moderators struggle to contain rabid candidates. Will a lack of audible audio change the dynamic? → The F-word: A pair of Biden-Trump 2020 debates were defined in part by intense name-calling. But will the current POTUS remind the audience that the former POTUS is now a convicted felon? → One and done? The Commission on Presidential Debates isn't organizing any this time around after Biden and Trump agreed to pull out of that process. ABC News plans to host a second faceoff on Sept. 10, but Wren observes that anything can happen between now and then. The CNN debate may be all we get. MEDIA ROOM — CP reports: "Ottawa plans to expand eligibility for the federal dental program today to include children under the age of 18 and people who receive a disability tax credit." — MICHAEL WERNICK asks and answers in Policy Options: Can angst about productivity lead to serious public-service reforms? — Vancouver Mayor KEN SIM is defending a gym he had installed beside his office. Green Party councilor PETE FRY nicknamed it the "mojo dojo casa house." — STEPHEN POLOZ joined the “ARC Energy” pod, where he fielded questions on pension funds, inflation, interest rates, productivity, free trade with the U.S., EV subsidies and Canada’s ongoing deficit budgets. — “If Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE wants to win support from the LGBTQ+ community in the next federal election, he should take a walk in this year’s Capital Pride Parade,” CHARLIE SENACK suggests in the Ottawa Citizen. — Xtra’s ZIYA JONES spent eight months talking to trans youth between the ages of 10 and 20 who are impacted by anti-trans policies across Canada. — The Angus Reid Institute just released new premier approval data. On top: Manitoba Premier WAB KINEW, still honeymooning with voters. PLAYBOOKERS Birthdays: HBD to JULIE CHAISSON, executive director of the Nova Scotia PC Caucus office, and former B.C. MLA and speaker LINDA REID. Happy birth day (literally, on June 25) to MARGOT MARIE DILLANE, brand-new daughter to PMO deputy comms director MICHELLE JOHNSTON and Hill+Knowlton Strategies account director ERIC DILLANE. Send birthdays to ottawaplaybook@politico.com. Spotted: HOSER04, the call sign for a CC-150 Polaris that flew past Parliament Hill on Wednesday in the parade of aerial Canada Day rehearsals. (Hoser Air was the one flanked by a pair of CF-18 fighters.) Wellington Advocacy's ZITA ASTRAVAS and RAY NOVAK, completing the Vancouver Half Marathon. Noted: The donor count at the Liberals' Laurier Club summer garden party, per Elections Canada records: 646. Cabmin count: 16. Movers and shakers: The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has tapped PIERRE TREMBLAY for president, a five-year term that begins in August. … DEBBIE DELANCEY and SHANTHI JOHNSON have been reappointed to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Governing Council. McMillan LLP has signed up lobbyists to rep the Fuel Surcharge Excess Recovery Coalition, which claims railways are levying fuel surcharges on shippers that exceed fuel costs. — Coalition members include the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada, Fertilizer Canada, Forest Products Association of Canada, Mining Association of Canada, Pulse Canada, Responsible Distribution Canada, Saskatchewan Mining Association, and the Western Canadian Shippers’ Coalition. Media mentions: ED GREENSPON, president and CEO of the Public Policy Forum, announced he will step down at the end of the year. “I'm happy to speak with anyone interested in leading a great organization with a crackerjack team and an essential mission,” he shared on LinkedIn. PROZONE Don’t miss our latest policy newsletter for Pro subscribers from KYLE DUGGAN: ‘This is not a WWF match. This is reality.’ In other headlines for Pros: — California bill to force Google, Meta to pay for news is a ‘work in progress.’ — Iceland is flush with green energy. Does it want to be Europe’s battery? — US fails to cut deal with allies to restrict fossil fuel funding. — Denmark sets first carbon tax on agriculture. — What would Trump 2.0 mean for coal? TRIVIA Wednesday’s answer: The prime minister's summer house at Harrington Lake was built in 1925 by Ottawa lumber baron CAMERON MACPHERSON EDWARDS. Props to MALCOLM MCKAY, LAURA JARVIS, JENN KEAY, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, GORDON RANDALL and MARCEL MARCOTTE. We missed these trivia champs on Wednesday: FRANCIS DOWNEY, JASON DEVEAU and JOSEPH CHAMOUN. Today’s question: A former political staffer who once worked for a chief government whip launched this east-end Ottawa brewery. Send your answer to ottawaplaybook@politico.com Writing tomorrow's Playbook: KYLE DUGGAN 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.   Follow us on Twitter Nick Taylor-Vaisey @TaylorVaisey Sue Allan @susan_allan Kyle Duggan @Kyle_Duggan Zi-Ann Lum @ziannlum POLITICO Canada @politicoottawa   Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  Ottawa Playbook  |  Brussels Playbook  |  London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters Follow us

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