THE FIRST THING — APTN News first reported last night that 163 chiefs and proxies voted at an online meeting of the Assembly of First Nations to oust National Chief ROSEANNE ARCHIBALD. "The unprecedented online meeting was held in private," the broadcaster noted, "ahead of a full assembly meeting in Halifax starting July 13."
A BIG GET — Former House speaker GEOFF REGAN is joining Sandstone Group, a strategic advisory firm with a new crisis comms practice, as a senior adviser. "Geoff's wealth of public-private expertise will give our clients a privileged line of sight into government decision-making and exercise of power," said managing partner NARESH RAGHUBEER. Regan has also beefed up his business bonafides since leaving the Commons in 2021. In March 2022, he took a Harvard Business School course on how to be a corporate director as part of a transition program that helps MPs "re-establish themselves" in the outside world. ARCTIC SECURITY — Ah, summertime. The Hill slows to a near-halt. Staffers and journalists take long-delayed vacations. We have time to talk about ostensibly urgent issues that are perennially crowded out of the parliamentary fights du jour. Senate committees elbow their way into a news cycle. So it was on Wednesday, one of the reliably slowest hump days of the year in the post-silly season news vacuum, when the Senate committee on national security, defense and veterans affairs published a report on Canada's glaring gaps in Arctic defense. — Sober second thought: Arctic defense has not been a key priority for Canada since the Cold War. But senators say the country needs to re-engage on Arctic security in a changing geopolitical environment with new risks from foreign powers and climate change. We've heard this all before. — Spread too thin: At a news conference unveiling the report, Independent Sen. TONY DEAN, who chairs the committee, warned that Canada’s armed forces are “below complement, under-resourced and stretched to the limit.” — The Globe headline on the report: Canada urged to buy new submarines capable of operating in the Arctic. — Here's a talker from another time: Canada in the past declined to partner with the U.S. on its ballistic missile defense program. Asked about it at the press conference, senators said it’s something Canada should reconsider. “If we want to maintain that relationship with the U.S., ballistic missile capacity should be considered again by the federal government,” Dean said. “We’re thin on the ground in many respects.” Don't expect a sudden about-face from the Trudeau government on American-made missiles flying across Canadian skies. But 'tis the season of food for thought. — Meanwhile, in the U.K.: Defense Minister ANITA ANAND is warming up for July's NATO summit with a trip to the United Kingdom. Anand meets today with Canadian military personnel at a military base, delivers a speech at a think tank and holds a bilateral meeting and media availability alongside BEN WALLACE, the U.K. secretary of state for defense. The word count on "Arctic" in Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU's joint statement this week with Nordic leaders hit a whopping five — including by stressing the importance of the region in "maintaining a safe and stable global climate." The Arctic is a thing. Anand and the PM should make time for it this summer. DUMPWATCH — Friday is the Friday to end all Fridays before the Canada Day long weekend. Set your alarms for 5 p.m., the hour in Ottawa to drop news that newsmakers would rather be neither seen nor heard. | 
