| | | | |  | | By Kyle Duggan, Nick Taylor-Vaisey and Carmen Paun | Thanks for reading Ottawa Playbook. In today's edition: → Early adopters flock to Meta’s Twitter-killer app → ANTONY BLINKEN’s huddle on fighting the opioid crisis → A Calgary Stampede survival guide for the uninitiated |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | |  It's Twitter vs. Meta in the battle of the apps. | AP | PICKING UP THE THREADS — Twitter feels a bit like the walking dead these days. It’s still the main shared digital watering hole for politicos and keyboard warriors, even though fewer and fewer of us want to be there anymore. We’re all just waiting for the pollsters to decide which one of the newest platforms they’ll use to get into late-night verbal spats. On Thursday, Canadian social media feeds filled with new handles of the political class, journalists and others setting up camp over on Meta’s Twitter-like app, Threads, which won some 30 million users in a day, wonderful headlines like these and a legal threat from its main rival. It’s still unclear how much staying power it will have, but it kind of feels like a moment. So Playbook got on the horn to get the chattering class to capture some of the: → Intrigue. Digital strategist COLE HOGAN of Earnscliffe said Twitter is mostly used in politics to try to earn free media — announce something, insert yourself into a story, be the first to react to something — and nothing is likely to instantly replace that just yet. But he said Threads could become an interesting future space for advertisers “given that Meta could potentially have Facebook, Instagram and Threads all in one spot and basically continue to eat up a lot of the majority of digital ad spending online.” → Nostalgia. The Star’s SUSAN DELACOURT lamented that many moons ago, Twitter wasn’t such a ruinous hellscape and resembled a “pretty good public square.” “I remember when it was fun to watch by-election results on Twitter because you could talk to people all night and know about just what this meant and [talk with] the people who were on the ground. And now it's just this sewer of people saying things I used to think they wouldn't dare to say in public.” → Boredom. Substacker PAUL WELLS quit Twitter, twice, and saw immediate improvements in his mental health and productivity. “Twitter,” he tells Playbook, “terribly subverts people's best nature and makes them act in horrible, stupid, embarrassing ways — without ELON MUSK’s help. It's corrosive to society.” “But the Twitter substitutes that I've seen are mostly so innocuous they're boring.” → Excitement. Columnist ERICA IFILL pointed to an exodus of the Black Twitter community, who are headed to an app called Spill, designed for people who became targets of hate. “There have been a lot of people, especially marginalized communities, that have said that Twitter has gotten worse in terms of harassment and hate, so the whole experience of Twitter is gone,” she tells Playbook. “I think we're just going to see a more fragmented social media landscape.” — Early Threads adopters: Cabinet ministers JOYCE MURRAY, SEAMUS O’REGAN, JONATHAN WILKINSON, CAROLYN BENNETT, FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE. Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE and MPs MELISSA LANTSMAN, BOB ZIMMER, MICHELLE REMPEL GARNER, LUC BERTHOLD and LIANNE ROOD. NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH, MPs DON DAVIES, PETER JULIAN and ALEXANDRE BOULERICE. Ontario Liberal leadership contenders NATE ERSKINE-SMITH, YASIR NAQVI, and ADIL SHAMJI. — Conspicuously absent: Heritage Minister PABLO RODRIGUEZ and Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU, who continue to use their other Meta accounts. The two have spent the early part of their summers exchanging blows with the company over its plans to end news sharing on its platforms in Canada. Poilievre tweeted Thursday it’s about time the PM “go cold turkey” on Meta products and advertising if he really believes the company is threatening democracy. That taunt comes a day after Trudeau compared the fight against Facebook to WWII. — Invite-only Bluesky elites: Immigration Minister SEAN FRASER and his press sec BAHOZ DARA AZIZ, NDP MP MATTHEW GREEN. And many journalists, including the OG microblogging queen, KADY O’MALLEY, the host of CBC’s Power and Politics, DAVID COCHRANE, and our very own PHILIPPE J. FOURNIER. | | For your radar | | | | 
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wants to rally leaders around an urgent cause. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo | WANTED: A UNITED FRONT AGAINST OPIOIDS — The U.S. State Department is trying to gather most of the world under one virtual tent to fight opioids such as illicit fentanyl — the top killer of young adults in the United States. U.S. Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN will host a virtual meeting this morning to officially launch a Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats with more than 80 countries and several international organizations. Carmen Paun shared a preview of the summit in the POLITICO’s Future Pulse newsletter: The coalition brings together officials from countries such as Canada, Mexico and those in the European Union and Middle East to exchange knowledge about how to respond to the rise of synthetic opioids driving addiction, said a State Department official whom POLITICO granted anonymity because the person wasn’t authorized to speak on the record. — Quote of note: “When we were talking to a mayor from outside of Vancouver, British Columbia, he said they’ve moved on from fentanyl to carfentanil, an animal tranquilizer for elephants and rhinoceros that is 100 times more potent than fentanyl,” the official said, adding that the U.S. could learn from Canada’s response to it, for example. Other participating countries struggle with drugs such as methamphetamines in Europe and the synthetic amphetamine-type stimulant Captagon in the Middle East, and there’s value in sharing experiences, the official said. — Priority planning: According to the State Department official, participating countries will work on three priorities until March 2024 when the U.S. and partners would decide whether to continue the coalition or make changes:
- Preventing the manufacturing and trafficking of illicit synthetic drugs.
- Detecting emerging drug threats and use patterns through data-sharing and forecasting to try “to identify the new fentanyl or the next meth before it gets here.
- Promoting appropriate health responses, such as certifying health care workers, establishing rules for law enforcement when they encounter people who overdosed, developing community-based solutions and reducing stigma.
— The elephant not in the room? Fentanyl was involved in more than 70,000 overdose or poisoning deaths in the U.S. last year. The Public Health Agency of Canada, meanwhile, attributes 7,327 deaths to “apparent opioid toxicity.” Fentanyl is produced by drug cartels in Mexico with raw materials procured mostly from China. The latter has been invited to the summit but has neither accepted nor declined the invitation, the State Department official said. — Canada’s involvement: Addictions Minister CAROLYN BENNETT has been working with the U.S. and Mexico on the Trilateral Fentanyl Committee and last month traveled to Washington, D.C. where she called for action against illegal imports of chemicals used in manufacturing illicit fentanyl. When Playbook requested an interview with Bennett ahead of the meeting Friday, her office replied with a statement that said engaging with the global coalition and similar initiatives offers “valuable opportunities to share best practices, policies and lessons learned.” | | TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS | |
— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU will be in Alberta where he'll meet with Premier DANIELLE SMITH at 2 p.m. local time. The Canadian Press has a preview.
— Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND is in Vancouver, British Columbia, for private meetings. 8:30 a.m. Statistics Canada will release its June 2023 labor force survey. Did someone forward Ottawa Playbook your way? Click here to sign up for your own edition. It’s free! | | WHO'S UP, WHO'S DOWN | |
Up: TAYLOR SWIFT, who commands more attention from JUSTIN TRUDEAU and international political aspirants than any journalist or lobbyist ever did.
Down: Center-right parties, for being put in the same category this week as Hungarian PM VIKTOR ORBAN. | | ALSO FOR YOUR RADAR | | | | 
Erin O'Toole and Jag Sahota at a previous edition of the Calgary Stampede. | Jag Sahota/Handout | STAMPEDE SURVIVAL GUIDE — Stay hydrated. Ask a Calgarian for tips on how a Laurentian elite can endure the non-stop party known as the Greatest Show on Earth, and a constant supply of H2O tops the list. The festivities officially get underway today. Prepare for a serious case of FOMO. — East moves west: Stampede is a staple of the federal political calendar. Election years and leadership races up the ante, but no serious politician or lobbyist ever misses out. The precedent has been set: any politician who wants to be seen having fun and tipping their (possibly borrowed) cowboy hat to the locals puts in the effort. Trudeau arrived Thursday. An eagle-eyed Playbook reader spotted him dining with Innovation Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE and astronaut JEREMY HANSEN, the Stampede's parade marshal. Today, the PM is hosting a 5:30 p.m. Laurier Club reception for top party donors at downtown Calgary's MobSquad Café. Cabinet ministers RANDY BOISSONNAULT and ANITA ANAND will also be in the room. Calgary Liberal MP GEORGE CHAHAL hosts his own breakfast tomorrow morning outside the Baitun Nur mosque in northeast Calgary. Word is the PM will stop by, same as last year. Tory leader PIERRE POILIEVRE hosts a fundraiser this evening at a downtown Italian restaurant a short walk from Trudeau's venue. Poilievre headlines a Stampede BBQ at Heritage Park tomorrow evening, where tickets go for C$200 apiece. Heritage Park is smack-dab in the middle of STEPHEN HARPER's former riding, where SHUV MAJUMDAR will cruise to victory in a July 24 byelection. — So many pancakes and pints: CIJA's KATE DALGLEISH explains the social scene. “Stampede’s reception circuit is like the Ottawa Bubble on steroids and can test the endurance of even hardened extroverts," she says. "A dedicated lobbyist or MP may be attending 5-7 receptions, daily, for several days — and it’s not just the political circuit. Other industries — law firms, oil companies, etc. — have their own circuits of receptions. Nobody is in their offices working — all the work is being done at receptions.” Here's a sample itinerary to fill out your calendar. Friday: The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, CJPAC, the Calgary Jewish Federation and the Jewish Federation of Edmonton are co-hosting a 12:30 p.m. "Spuds and Suds" reception at the Hyatt Regency. Global Public Affairs is at Palomino Smokehouse, starting at 11 a.m. Saturday: Tory MP JASRAJ SINGH HALLAN hosts a 9 a.m. breakfast at MaKami College with Poilievre. Mash Strategy and Pathways Strategies are co-hosting a shindig at the downtown Marriott Residence Inn. Crestview Strategy has a 7 p.m. hootenanny at Palomino. Sunday: The Equal Voice Foundation hosts a 1 p.m. party at the Rooftop YYC. Enterprise Canada and Creative Currency are at Last Brewing & Distilling, starting at 3 p.m. The Canadian Strategy Group is at the rooftop of National on 8th, starting at 6. Monday: Premier DANIELLE SMITH hosts a 7 a.m. breakfast at McDougall Centre. The Public Affairs Association of Canada heads to CENTRAL Taps + Food, starting at 11:30. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is at The Palomino at 3:30 p.m. Navigator's Stampede Round Up takes over Barcelona at 4 p.m. Wellington Advocacy starts a party at The Rooftop at 5. Amazon hosts a reception at Charbar at 5:30. Tuesday: The NDP caucus breakfast is at the Meadowlark Community Association, starting at 8 a.m. The Calgary Economic Development federal ministers' reception is at Bonterra Trattoria at 3 p.m. H+K Strategies will be at The Ampersand at 4 p.m — What's the big deal? Calgarians love Stampede. Eastern bastards who haven't experienced the thrill of it all just don't get it, they'll say. OK, so why? Playbook asked SHIFRAH GADAMSETTI, a government relations and research consultant at Summa Strategies. She gave us a PG answer, which played up the friendliness of locals and wonderful food and music. Then she told us how she really felt. "It's just f—kin' fun. Rip-roarin' fun. It's gone from this weird cowboy cosplay that wasn't really about much outside of binge drinking for 10 days to this amazing city-wide festival. Sure, there's the costume-y aspect to it, but I think the city just turns into this energetic, up-for-anything, dusk-till-dawn adventure and there is something to do every 100 feet." Feeling that FOMO yet? — Dress code: "Please, please no suits and ties," writes Rubicon's JONATHAN MOSER. "Remember the two rule. Wear two western things in your outfit out of a combination of jeans, western shirt, boots, hat, bandana — you catch my drift." — Friendly advice: "Take cabs, not Ubers," says New West Public Affairs principal MIKE SOLBERG. "The surge pricing will bankrupt you and your family." | | MEDIA ROOM | |
— CP's KELLY GERALDINE MALONE reports that ROSEANNE ARCHIBALD wants an independent investigation into potential government interference into the Assembly of First Nations a week after she was ousted as national chief.
— AFN regional chiefs will choose an interim leader on Sunday. DENNIS WARD at APTN News sets up the election. — The Globe’s ADRIAN MORROW reports out of ROBERT LIGHTHIZER’s new book that “the renegotiation of the North American free-trade agreement pushed U.S.-Canada relations to their worst point since the War of 1812.” — Canada’s former ambassador to NATO KERRY BUCK offers Policy readers a guide to what to watch for in Vilnius. — The latest Hub Dialogues features Navigator exec JAIME WATT in conversation about his new book, “What I Wish I Said: Confessions of a Columnist.” — Who broke the Toronto transit system? Toronto Life has thoughts. | | PROZONE | |
For POLITICO Pro subscribers, our latest policy newsletter by SUE ALLAN and KYLE DUGGAN: Watchdog demands Meta user data in probe of fake Amazon reviews.
Here is the latest wildfire update: ‘Literally off the charts’: Canada’s fire season sets records — and is far from over. In other news for Pro subscribers:
— Canada lands Stellantis — again.
— Navy set to lose out on jets due to row with Boeing.
— House Republicans circulate 'ESG month' schedule.
— Brussels dazed as Beijing hits back in tit-for-tat trade fight.
— U.S. keeps mum on its ideas for reforming WTO dispute settlement. | | PLAYBOOKERS | |
Birthdays: HBDs go out to former MPs VIVIAN BARBOT, LEON BENOIT and JEAN CROWDER. Summa’s KATE HARRISON, Proof’s GENEVIEVE TOMNEY and Earnscliffe’s ELLY ALBOIM all celebrate today.
HBD + 1 to JENNI BYRNE and PETER MANSBRIDGE. Over the weekend, birthday shoutouts to Sen. PERCY DOWNE, as well as former journalist PAUL ADAMS, who now co-chairs the Canadian Grief Alliance, and MPs EARL DREESHEN and BRIAN MASSE. Send birthdays to ottawaplaybook@politico.com. Movers and shakers: PM Trudeau appointed two Mi'kmaq senators: PAUL PROSPER for Nova Scotia and JUDY WHITE for Newfoundland and Labrador. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt's LISA MANTELLO signed up in the lobbyist registry on behalf of BMO, Scotiabank, CIBC, RBC, TD and the National Bank. Their priority is a legislative amendment related to the ongoing transition to a new key Canadian interest-rate benchmark. Heidelberg Materials, the cement-maker building a carbon capture, utilization and storage system at its Edmonton facility with federal help, filed four meetings with FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE policy adviser KEVIN DAIGLE. Back in April, Champagne signed a memorandum of understanding with the company that launched "negotiations toward an agreement for the proposed project." Spotted: At the Argentine ambassador's Rockcliffe Park residence for an Independence Day reception, Argentine-born Heritage Minister PABLO RODRIGUEZ, U.S. ambo DAVID COHEN, and Dutch ambo INES COPPOOLSE, as well as Pendulum Group partners YAROSLAV BARAN and HEATHER BAKKEN. | | TRIVIA | |
Thursday’s answer: It was MARY SIMON, newly introduced as Canada’s next governor general, who said: “We must thoughtfully work hard towards the promise of a better tomorrow. I believe we can build the hopeful future in a way that is respectful of what has happened in the past.”
Props to WARREN ASKEW, ALLAN FABRYKANT, GEORGE SCHOENHOFER, NANCI WAUGH, JEFFREY VALOIS, BOB GORDON, ROBERT MCDOUGALL and LAURA JARVIS. Today’s question: On July 7, 1967, the first 90 people were appointed to the Order of Canada. Who was the inaugural inductee? Send your answer to ottawaplaybook@politico.com Think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best. 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 Playbook wouldn’t happen: Without Luiza Ch. Savage, Sue Allan and Emma Anderson.
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