The mega-calendar you need

Jan 02, 2024

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By Nick Taylor-Vaisey

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Thanks for reading Ottawa Playbook.

In today's edition:

→ Q: Name the politics newsletter that is launching a trivia tourney. A: This one.

→ Check out our downloadable Playbook 2024 mega-calendar.

→ The Liberals tucked a few major announcements into the holidays. We’ve listed ’em, ICYMI.

Talk of the town

TRIVIA CUP — Playbook is vaulting into 2024 with an ambitious expansion of our favorite extracurricular activity. We're thrilled to launch the First Annual POLITICO Canada Trivia Cup, a friendly-but-competitive contest to find the geekiest nerds around Parliament Hill.

The winning team's name will be engraved on an oversized POLITICO Trivia trophy cup.

Here's what we've cooked up.

— Location: The Met in Ottawa will graciously host our series.

— How it works: There will be five qualifying rounds from January to May — each targeted at a specific Hill demographic.

Are you a minister's chief of staff in search of a team-building event? A fearless and loyal public servant who wants a little bit of glory? A reporter who wants to stick it to another bureau? A senator who needs to one-up the other place? A lobbyist who’d like every other lobbyist to know how smart you are?

Good news. We have the event for you. Here are the dates:

→ Lobbyists on Wednesday, Jan. 24

→ Ministers and their staff on Monday, Feb. 5

→ Journalists on Tuesday, March 5

→ Public servants on Tuesday, April 23

→ MPs and senators on Monday, May 6

Each team will be capped at six members.

The first 15 teams to sign up in each category will secure a table. The top 4 teams at each qualifier will advance to the championship on Monday, June 3.

— How to sign up: We're going old school with registration — just like club day in high school. Playbook's NICK TAYLOR-VAISEY has booked a table at the Met for 2-4 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 4 and Thursday, Jan. 11. He'll bring registration sheets, pens and answers to any questions you have about the First Annual POLITICO Canada Trivia Cup.

See you at the Met!

DRIVING THE DAY

The House of Commons at night.

POLITICO Canada

MEGA-CALENDAR — The contours of Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU's potential 2024 globe trots are already becoming clear.

Back-to-back high-powered summits in South America nearly guarantee a November jaunt to Lima and Rio. And don't rule out an October adventure in Eurasian summitry that tours parts of France and Laos — or a trip to the South Pacific in the same month.

— Don't miss a thing: Playbook is maintaining a long list of must-watch moments and noteworthy anniversaries for 2024. And we're sharing the love. Add it to your Google calendar or download the file for other clients. You can also view it in your browser.

— Don't be shy: What have we missed? Drop us a line at ottawaplaybook@politico.com with major events that should be on our radar. We'll keep it updated all year.

— Reference guide: Red means an event somewhere outside of Canada. The House of Commons 2024 sitting calendar is a handy companion to this exercise.

Jan. 13: Taiwan presidential election

Feb. 16-18: Munich Security Conference

Feb. 24: The two-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Feb. 28: 40th anniversary of PIERRE ELLIOTT TRUDEAU’s “walk in the snow”

March 3-6: Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada 2024 convention

March 17: Russian presidential election

March 18-22: The lone House sitting week in the calendar month

March 31: Easter Sunday

April 11: Canada Growth Summit 2024, hosted by the Public Policy Forum

May 7: Politics and the Pen gala

June 2: Mexican general election (President ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR cannot seek another term. CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM is the favorite to win the presidency — and would be the first woman in that role.)

June 13-15: The G7 Summit in Apulia, Italy

June 17-21: Final House sitting week before summer break

June 30: Toronto Pride parade

July 5-14: Calgary Stampede, where every federal leader shows their face the first weekend (and dons the obligatory Western get-up)

July 9-11: NATO summit in Washington, D.C.

July 15-18: Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

July 26-Aug. 11: Summer Olympics in Paris

Aug. 1-20: The prime minister's traditional summer vacay window

Aug. 4: Vancouver Pride parade

Aug. 7: Royal St. John's Regatta, another annual summertime magnet for federal politicians

Aug. 11: Montreal Pride parade

Aug. 19-22: Democratic National Convention in Chicago

Sept. 16: House of Commons returns from summer break

Sept. 30: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Oct. 4-5: The Francophonie Summit in Villers-Cotterêts and Paris, France

Oct. 6-11: ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos

Oct. 14: Thanksgiving Monday

Oct. 19: The last possible date for the B.C. provincial election

Oct. 21: The last possible date for the New Brunswick provincial election

Oct: 21: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Apia, Samoa

Oct. 28: Last possible date for the Saskatchewan provincial election

Nov. 5: Americans elect their next president (along with the entire House of Representatives, one-third of the Senate and 11 state governors)

Nov. 10-16: APEC summit in Lima, Peru

Nov. 11-22: COP29 U.N. climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan

Nov. 11: Remembrance Day

Nov. 18-19: G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Dec. 17: The last day the U.K. Parliament can be dissolved before January 2025 elections

Where the leaders are

— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is on vacation with family in Jamaica.

For your radar

YEAR-END NEWS HITS — As most of Ottawa settled in for an extended snooze, Playbook kept track of government announcements wedged into the final two weeks of 2023. Some were timed for annual recap newsletters mailed to constituents. Others, not so much.

— Bank merger: On the Thursday before Christmas, Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND approved RBC's purchase of HSBC Canada (with conditions). Freeland's department also launched public consultations on "strengthening competition in the financial sector." Tory Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE staunchly opposes the merger.

Speaking of competition: Industry Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE was in a status quo state of mind when he reappointed the competition commissioner, MATTHEW BOSWELL, for an additional two-year term.

— Toronto housing: Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU and a small army of Cabinet ministers and Toronto MPs joined Mayor OLIVIA CHOW in unveiling the city's C$471 million share of a C$4 billion federal fund meant to accelerate homebuilding. The money is supposed to "help spur" the construction of 53,000 homes over 10 years.

— TMX pipeline: POLITICO's ZI-ANN LUM spotted a notice published Dec. 22 by Export Development Canada, which showed Cabinet approval of a special loan guarantee to Trans Mountain Corporation on Nov. 30 for up to C$2 billion.

Pro subscribers can check out Lum's full report.

— Foreign interference: Justice MARIE-JOSÉE HOGUE, the commissioner of the nascent public inquiry into foreign interference, requested a deadline extension for her interim report, which had been due by the end of February. Public Safety Minister DOMINIC LEBLANC pushed the date to May 3.

On Dec. 22, Hogue denied the Conservative Party full standing in proceedings for the second time, which prompted Tories to question the commission's legitimacy. Hearings get underway Jan. 29.

— Health care: Who says Alberta can't get along with Ottawa? The two governments inked a three-year, C$1 billion deal meant to improve access to doctors, reduce wait times and offer increased youth mental health services.

— Research and development: Champagne named MITCH DAVIES, formerly the senior bureaucrat in charge of the government's marquee Strategic Innovation Fund, as president of the National Research Council.

— All politics is local: For the second year in a row, the feds froze toll fees for the Confederation Bridge that spans the Northumberland Strait between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Transport Minister PABLO RODRIGUEZ cited "current economic challenges" facing maritimers.

MEDIA ROOM

Phasing back into work post-holidays? A syllabus for re-entry:

— DONALD SAVOIE, a towering figure in the study of Canada's public service, unloads on the broken federal bureaucracy in his latest Globe op-ed.

— Chief Public Health Officer THERESA TAM opened up about the personal toll of Covid in a long interview with the Star's RAISA PATEL. (In the depths of the holiday lull, Patel also found out why Parliament Hill's head chef has cut portion sizes for MPs.)

— A recent BBC deep dive into Australian housing woes rings eerily familiar to many Canadians (via MICHAEL WERNICK on LinkedIn).

— The Narwhal's MIKE DE SOUZA debriefs readers on the 643 freedom-of-information requests filed by Narwhalians in 2023.

— The Logic unveiled its newsmakers of 2023.

— The Globe's SHANNON PROUDFOOT followed the arc of 2023's final political tussle, during which a pair of Liberal MPs hosted a bizarre news conference only to complain about PIERRE POILIEVRE's year-end interviews.

— One takeaway from ERIN O'TOOLE's end-of-year reflections on leaving public life: "The bubble is not just in Ottawa anymore. Political gravity in the social media age allows the bubble to travel with you and is making it next to impossible to escape its forces."

PROZONE

In news for Pro subscribers:

— When Silicon Valley’s AI warriors came to Washington.

— A new kind of AI copy can fully replicate famous people. The law is powerless.

— Here’s how Joe Biden may cement his antitrust legacy in 2024.

— 5 big funding questions awaiting Congress in January.

— Oregon judge says children's climate lawsuit can continue.

PLAYBOOKERS

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh speaks during the federal election English-language Leaders debate in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada on September 9, 2021. (Photo by Justin Tang / POOL / AFP) (Photo by JUSTIN TANG/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

HBD to NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. | POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Birthdays: Happiest of birthdays to NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH.

Celebrate your day with the Playbook community. Send us the details. We’ll let everyone know.

Spotted: Among 81 donors at PIERRE POILIEVRE's Dec. 14 fundraiser in Toronto's swanky Forest Hill neighborhood: DAVID CYNAMON, FRANK STRONACH, GLORIA EPSTEIN, NICOLE EATON, DEREK VANSTONE, MARK MCQUEEN, LYNDA PRINCE, ROBERT PETROCCIA, SABRINA MADDEAUX, GINNY ROTH, HAMISH MARSHALL, STEVEN WEISZ, JACK EISENBERGER and GREGORY EBEL.

CPC MP ALEX RUFF, sharing his 2023 reading list … NDP MP and birder RICHARD CANNINGS, with “An Owl Too Many.” U.S. Trade Representative KATHERINE TAI, posting her must-watch shows of the year (including the fourth season of “Succession”).

Retired Sen. JIM MUNSON, in conversation with former PM JEAN CHRÉTIEN … Sen. PETER BOEHM, reading “How Not to Be a Politician.”

Fifteen percent of Canadians surveyed by Pollara on Dec. 11 said they were aware the government had passed the Treaty of Algeron — a fictional news event. (DAN ARNOLD, Pollara's chief strategy officer, put the same question in surveys when he worked in the Prime Minister's Office. Arnold later told Playbook why he faked out respondents.)

Economist STEPHEN GORDON with a very specific new year’s resolution: “I am going to call out @CBCNews every goddamn time they run an article that is more interested in how policy proposals affect the electoral horse race than it is in how they affect Canadians.”

Movers and shakers: MARIE-CHANTAL GIRARD takes over today as president of the Public Service Commission of Canada.

JODY THOMAS, the PM's national security adviser, has announced that she will retire Jan. 26.

Media mentions: STEPHANIE LEVITZ is the Star’s new deputy Ottawa bureau chief.

TRIVIA

Today’s question: What former prime minister of Canada qualified for the 1948 Olympics — but did not compete?

Answers to ottawaplaybook@politico.com .

Want to grab the attention of movers and shakers on Parliament Hill? Want your brand in front of a key audience of Ottawa influencers? Run a Playbook ad campaign. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com.

Playbook wouldn’t happen without: POLITICO Canada editor Sue Allan, editor Willa Plank and Luiza Ch. Savage.

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