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Good Monday morning. Thanks for reading Ottawa Playbook. The mayor has declared a state of emergency. The premier says the protest in the nation’s capital has become an occupation. The prime minister, meanwhile, is in private meetings.
MANIC MONDAY — “The situation at this point is completely out of control,” Ottawa Mayor JIM WATSON said Sunday before declaring a state of emergency.
— Ready for the long-haul: “The demonstrators have set up barbecues and fire pits, amassed stockpiles of food, toilet paper and fuel, and hung banners everywhere with messages like “Freedom over Fear,” “Media is the virus” and “Fuck Trudeau,” POLITICO’s ANDY BLATCHFORD writes. But it’s a family affair: there are inflatable bouncy castles for the kids.
— Read into Hansard: Ottawa Centre MP YASIR NAQVI described the scene this way: “Members of my community are being harassed, being subjected to hurtful and racist symbols and the incessant honking is unbearable. Our parking lots are being used as urinals, fireworks are being hurled down streets at night and the air is thick with diesel fuel. Residents are not sleeping and businesses are shuttered.”
“So far,” Andy writes, “Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU has not said much of anything at all.”
What we know from the PM’s itinerary: He’s scheduled to be in private meetings today — somewhere in the national capital region.
POLITICO EXCLUSIVE — MARK SCOTT reports that as the stand-off against Covid-19 restrictions paralyzes Ottawa, it’s becoming viral online as a rallying cry for leading U.S. Republican politicians, far-right influencers and white supremacist groups who have transposed the criticism of Trudeau’s government to an international audience for their own political gain.
— On Telegram: Groups of tens of thousands of supporters have used the social network to mobilize support for the Canadian protests from across the United States, European Union and farther afield.
— On Facebook: Between Jan. 22 and Feb. 5, more than 7,000 Facebook posts, which collectively garnered almost 10 million social media interactions, mentioned the truckers’ convoy on U.S.-based Facebook pages, based on Crowdtangle data provided to POLITICO by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
— On multiple crowdfunding platforms: Despite GoFundMe’s decision to shutter the convoy’s main donation page, people from around the globe have donated millions of dollars in support of the Canadian movement and started alternative crowdfunding campaigns for like-minded protests in U.S. states and European countries.
In a report for POLITICO, Scott explains how the standoff in Ottawa offers a case study in how to bring into the mainstream.
POLL OF POLLSTERS — A snapshot of opinions from those who measure it:
— SHACHI KURL, president of the Angus Reid Institute: “Those who were caught off guard by the intensity, passion and adamance of the protesters have clearly not been paying attention to the creeping extremism in this country’s political discourse, fertilized in recent years by American political rhetoric, misinformation online and a sense of alienation among a significant segment of the population.”
— DARRELL BRICKER, CEO Ipsos Public Affairs: “While those in the know understand the province and city have a big role to play, the backdrop in every picture is Parliament Hill. What the average person hears and sees about this focuses them, fair or not, on the federal government.”
— DAVID COLETTO, chief executive of Abacus Data: “Politically, there appear to be no real winners. ERIN O’TOOLE may have lost his job because of the division over the convoy within his party, while Prime Minister Trudeau finds widespread dissatisfaction with his handling of the issue.”
PIERRE POILIEVRE IS IN — “I’m running for Prime Minister to give you back control of your life,” he announced Saturday evening with zero mention of the Conservative Party.
Note to American readers: This is not how it works in the Westminster tradition.
Rookie MP MELISSA LANTSMAN was quick to tweet: “I am with Pierre.”
So are MPs JAMES BEZAN, MIKE BARRETT, JAKE STEWART, MARILYN GLADU, BOB ZIMMER, BRAD VIS, JAMIE SCHMALE, DAN ALBAS, JOHN BARLOW, PHILIP LAWRENCE, COREY TOCHOR, MICHAEL COOPER, RYAN WILLIAMS, TODD DOHERTY, MARTY MORANTZ and MICHAEL KRAM. Let us know who we’ve missed.
Add former Cabinet minister JOHN BAIRD to the roster of early supporters: “My friend Pierre Poilievre has the brains and the backbone and will make a great Prime Minister.”
— Unsolicited advice: Writing on The Line, the former head of communications to Prime Minister STEPHEN HARPER urged the Conservatives to figure out what they’re for. “Right now we know more, much more, about what its membership is against. It’s against anything “Liberal” or “Liberal-lite.” It hates carbon taxes and Justin Trudeau,” ANDREW MACDOUGALL writes. “And while the hatred of the current Prime Minister is an adhesive, it’s no longer enough to bind the movement.”
— Changes at the top: Just ahead of the weekend, interim Conservative leader CANDICE BERGEN dispatched GÉRARD DELTELL, BLAKE RICHARDS, MICHAEL BARRETT and JAMES BEZAN and introduced her leadership team: JOHN BRASSARD (House leader), TOM KMIEC (deputy House leader and co-chair of question period planning), BLAINE CALKINS (chief whip) and LIANNE ROOD (deputy whip and co-chair of QP planning).
On Sunday morning, Quebec MP ALAIN RAYES stepped down as the Conservatives’ Quebec political lieutenant in order to support a leadership candidate he did not name.LUC BERTHOLD takes over that job.
— Related reading: Where does Canadian conservatism go from here? SEAN SPEER asks on The Hub.
TELL US EVERYTHING — What are you hearing that you need Playbook to know? Are you camped out in the trucker’s convoy? Are you backing Pierre? Send it all our way.
FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS — MARIO DION showed up to the House procedure committee with some ideas for the revamp of the conflict of interest code that applies to MPs. For one thing, he thinks the rules ought to subject friends to the same scrutiny as relatives.
During his appearance at PROC last week, the ethics commissioner took a question off the top about NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH’s C$1,895 rocker and whether or not the code needs a digital media update. “The rules do not focus on the medium,” Dion advised Conservative MP JOHN BRASSARD. “The rules focus on the behavior.”
Then, something like a Talmudic scholar, Dion spent the next hour fielding what-ifs, hypotheticals and requests for clarification:
— How do you define friendship?
“I feel I have a lot of friends, or a lot of people who feel they’re my friends,” Conservative MP ERIC DUNCAN said.
The definition is “very flexible,” Dion agreed. “I’m afraid it’s impossible to come up with a complete, forever applicable definition … there are millions of permutations.”
Why does it matter? Ask former finance minister BILL MORNEAU. For reference, here’s Dion’s “Morneau II” report.
— Do you “receive” a gift if you don’t keep it?
“You only receive a gift if you have failed to decline it,” Dion advised MP BLAINE CALKINS. “If you return it the morning after, you have not received a gift.”
Follow-up from MP MARK GERRETSEN: Say that hypothetical present is a book: “What if I read it really fast and then returned it? Is it a gift?”
— Do you accept a gift when staff pick it up in the mailroom?
That’s Calkins again, former chair of the House ethics committee: “Do I accept it when my staff member brings it through the threshold of my office door? Do I accept it when my staff member sets it upon my desk and it sits there for three months before I even acknowledge it?”
The Alberta MP left those questions with Dion to ponder.
Gerretsen asked the ethics czar if the rules have over-bureaucratized the process at the expense of the objective.
“We apply the code,” Dion replied. “We don’t write the code.”
— Ahead this week: The review continues Thursday with House of Commons officials and witnesses from Quebec, Ontario and Yukon.
— Any more questions: Dion invited MPs to give him a call.
SPEAKING OF FRIENDS — The onus is on Canada to consult the U.S. on major transactions — like a Chinese state-owned company’s takeover of a lithium mining firm — the House industry committee was told Friday.
“The United States takes a very broad view of what national security is or isn’t,” Carleton University’s MEREDITH LILLY told the all-party committee. “It takes the position that domestic industry — and threats to domestic industry — represent national security threats.”
Lilly was responding to a committee question inspired by Andy Blatchford’s report about Florida Rep. MICHAEL WALTZ who told POLITICO he’s on a mission to learn if Canada informed the Biden administration about the deal involving the Canadian headquartered Neo Lithium Corp. and China’s Zijin Mining Group Ltd.
— Secret deal: “It was quite surprising to me to hear of this acquisition, given there’s a clear national security nexus,” Waltz said. “I would think there’s clear national security concerns.”
— Transaction points: Lilly, who advised former PM Stephen Harper on foreign affairs and international trade, said it’s important to ensure major transactions do not jeopardize the Canada-U.S. relationship. “We don’t know the extent to which that did or didn’t occur in the case of this particular sale,” she added.
— For the record: “It’s my view that those three simple factors — the value of the sale, the sensitivity of the sector, and the involvement of the state-owned enterprise should automatically have triggered a full national security review,” Lilly told MPs off the top of her testimony.
— What’s next: When INDU meets Tuesday the CRTC’s IAN SCOTT will be in the hot seat with an update on the “ongoing work of the Canadian Radio-television Commission.” He’ll also have to answer for a beer he had in 2019 with Bell Media CEO MIRKO BIBIC that recently came to light.
JOIN US — White House climate adviser GINA MCCARTHY will join POLITICO Live at 1:30 p.m. Thursday to discuss President JOE BIDEN’s ambitious climate agenda. The interview is part of “The Long Game: Who Will Solve the Climate Crisis?” event, which will kick off at 12:45 p.m. with a panel moderated by Global Insider host RYAN HEATH and Ottawa Playbook’s ZI-ANN LUM discussing fresh data and insights from the POLITICO/Morning Consult Global Sustainability Poll on what citizens really think about how governments and businesses are dealing with climate and sustainability. RSVP here to watch.
— APTN’s BRITTANY GUYOT reports on missing and murdered Indigenous men and boys. Asks one mother who lost a son: “What about our fathers? What about our nephews? What about our uncles and grandfathers?”
— On National Newswatch, MICHAEL WOLFSON serves up some timely reading for the House ethics committee: When to be outraged about privacy.
— “Inside Ottawa there is a dearth of expertise on the issues that accompany our transition to a knowledge-based and data-driven economy,” JIM BALSILLIE writes in The Globe as chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators.
Later in the essay, he adds: “It is long past time to acknowledge that we don’t have a critical mass of expertise and analytical muscle inside our civil service.”
— Britain’s ultimate Westminster insider is actually its queen, ANNABELLE DICKSON writes for POLITICO.
— “Welcome to the Malaise Olympics.” For POLITICO Magazine, DEREK ROBERTSON writes that despite the awesome feats of athletic prowess, the Beijing Games feel “undeniably blah, utterly lacking the warm, fuzzy, global goodwill that is, yes, a shared fiction, but also the Olympics’ actual stated reason for existing.” It is, he writes, “perfectly in line with the impotent muddle” that defines our politics.
Birthdays: SCAACHI KOUL celebrates today — “Aquarius,” she noted on a recent list of people she’s mad at. “This, I know, explains a great deal.”
HBD + 1 to ROCCO ROSSI. HBD + 2 to JENNIFER GRANHOLM, BONNIE CROMBIE, DIANE LEBOUTHILLIER, YVON VALLIÈRES.
Movers and shakers: KEVIN FALCON is the new leader of the B.C. Liberal party.
Spotted: Business Council president and CEO GOLDY HYDER sharing screen time with Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. KIRSTEN HILLMAN.
LYSE DOUCET on Desert Island Discs.
National Post columnist and Navigator principal TASHA KHEIRIDDIN celebrating her forthcoming book, The Right Path: How Conservatives can Unite, Inspire and Take Canada Forward.
Conservative MP ERIC DUNCAN, offering a friendly suggestion that House committee chairs need no longer explain Zoom rules off the top of every meeting. “We’re two years into this, I think we know the rules and clicking the buttons.” The conversation was taken off line.
Farewells: ‘Newspaperman’ JOHN HONDERICH has died.
JIM COYLE and BEN COHEN shared the news in The Star: “Over the last 30 years, Honderich was the personification of the Toronto Star, the six-foot-two owner of broad features, a prominent jaw and a wide grin, a peripatetic presence at chattering class functions and an enthusiastic promoter of the city.”
Honderich died Saturday of a heart attack. He was 75.
“Toronto and Ontario and Canada have lost a giant of journalism,” ROBERT BENZIE, the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief, said. “In the newsroom and our bureaus, John was known as a fierce protector. He was a newspaperman through and through.” The Globe and Mail’s obituary is here.
DONALD JOHNSTON has died, the CBC reports. The former MP and cabinet minister also served as head of the OECD from 1996 to 2006.
Toronto MP KIRSTY DUNCAN shared news of her mother’s death. “She was my everything and a good friend to so many,” she said. “She was insatiably curious, played bagpipes, flew planes, sailed boats and spoke many languages.”
For Pro subscribers, here’s our week ahead memo: Advice for Chrystia Freeland.
In other headlines for Pros:
— Unregulated, synthetic vape use growing among kids.
— What comes next after the stunning jobs report.
— EU with other countries and aviation industry agrees to 2050 decarbonization target.
11 a.m. Privacy Commissioner DANIEL THERRIEN will appear at the House ethics committee as it studies mobility data.
11 a.m. The House finance committee continues pre-budget consultations.
11 a.m. The House foreign affairs committee will receive a briefing on Haiti.
3:30 p.m. The House natural resources committee is studying a greenhouse gas emissions cap and will hear from the Net-Zero Advisory Body, Canada West Foundation and Trottier Energy Institute. MARK JACCARD and SARA HASTINGS-SIMON will also appear.
3:30 p.m. The House Standing Committee on National Defence will receive a briefing from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Communications Security Establishment. Defence Minister ANITA ANAND is due there later this week.
3:30 p.m. MARY NG is scheduled before the House committee on international trade with deputy minister DAVID MORRISON.
6:30 p.m. The special committee on Afghanistan will hear from CARE Canada, Doctors Without Borders and other humanitarian organizations.
OVER AT THE SENATE — The audit and oversight,rules and procedures and national security and defense committees are scheduled to meet in camera about future business.
5 p.m. The Senate committee on human rights will meet to discuss Bill S-211, An Act to enact the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act.
5 p.m. The Senate committee on official languages will hear from Commissioner of Official Languages Raymond Théberge.
Friday’s answer: LOUISE MCKINNEY was the first woman elected in Canada and the British Empire. She ran in Alberta in 1917.
Props to ANNE-MARIE STACEY, NICK MASCIANTONIO, SHEILA GERVAIS, JOHN GUOBA, ROBERT MCDOUGALL and CULLY ROBINSON.
Today’s question: Who said of Canada: “Your respect for diversity within your own society and your tolerant and civilized manner of dealing with the challenges of difference and diversity had always been our inspiration.”
Send your answers to [email protected]
Reference-politi.co