| | | | |  | | By Kyle Duggan and Nick Taylor-Vaisey | | | Thanks for reading Ottawa Playbook. In our March 1 edition: → Tributes pour in for the boy from Baie-Comeau. → The Liberal-NDP pharmacare bill just saw its shadow — expect a longer term of government. → What’s another word for cut? Playbook peeks at the thesaurus ANITA ANAND is using these days. |  | IN MEMORIAM | | | | 
"Brian Mulroney was one of Canada's great change-makers," says former Conservative PM Joe Clark. | AP | BRIAN MULRONEY, 1939-2024 — He was the eulogizer to many leaders of his time: RONALD REAGAN, GEORGE H.W. BUSH and QUEEN ELIZABETH II. Who’s left to eulogize him? Well, little more than an hour after news that former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister BRIAN MULRONEY had died, former Liberal PM JEAN CHRÉTIEN, 90, popped up at a microphone set up in front of the House of Commons. “I was an opponent of him all my political career, but in politics, opposition is opposition. Try playing hockey — you can fight on the ice then have a beer together after that. And we had a lot of things in common.” Former PM JOE CLARK said: “Brian was one of Canada's great change-makers, determined to move the country forward and with an instinct to respect differences and an extraordinary capacity to reconcile.” Throughout the evening, Canadians of all stripes lined up to reflect on the loss of the man who set the bar for a landslide majority government and a debate knockout punch in Canada. Former Maclean’s editor ANTHONY WILSON-SMITH in Policy Magazine: “Above All, a Transcendent Talent for Friendship: Brian Mulroney, 1939-2024” IAN BRODIE wrote this guest post on PAUL WELLS’ substack: “Mulroney helped end the Cold War.” JOHN IBBITSON’s obit: “Canada’s deal maker played for keeps.” SUSAN DELACOURT: “It's hard to imagine Canada without Mulroney.” LUCIEN BOUCHARD’s description: “You couldn’t meet Brian Mulroney without loving him.” Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE called him “one of our greatest-ever statesmen” and solemnly eulogized him to the TV cameras. When asked about the last time they spoke, Poilievre's face lit up and his tone brightened. He'd called Mulroney for advice about six weeks ago, he said. “He had an incredibly encyclopedic mind. He could tell you what was going on in Swiss politics or in Taiwan on a given day. He was a brilliant conversationalist and a wonderful storyteller.” Mulroney's conversation with DAVID HERLE from two years ago is worth a listen today. Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU said Mulroney loved his country and “never stopped working for Canadians.” SEAMUS O’REGAN: “At a dark point in my life, he called. I’ll never forget it. His compassion is something I could never repay. There are thousands of people who can say the same today, thousands who are remembering his quiet kindness, his loyalty, his steel." “For me, he was a mentor," PETER MACKAYtold CPAC’s MICHAEL SERAPIO. "He was somebody who you know was larger than life.” Toronto Mayor OLIVIA CHOW said he leaves a legacy “benefiting all of us.” “He championed the environment, campaigning to end acid rain and protect the ozone. He led efforts to oppose apartheid in South Africa and offered redress of the historical injustice of the internment of Japanese Canadians.” ELIZABETH MAY posted that he remains “the Greenest PM in our history. He was always so very kind and generous as a leader and a friend.” — Hot-button headline: The Canadian Press caused a stir online among conservatives with its headline: “Brian Mulroney, one of Canada’s most divisive prime ministers, dead at 84.” The Globe took early flak for that and posted on social media that an “automated tweet … contained a headline that was not in line with our standards. It has now been deleted.” Speaking of headlines: → CBC News described Mulroney as: “One of Canada’s most consequential prime ministers.” → NYT: The “prime minister who led Canada into NAFTA.” → WaPo: “Canadian prime minister who shook up economy.” → Nunatsiaq News: “PM who signed Nunavut Agreement.” |  U.S. President George Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney sign an air quality accord on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, March 13, 1991. | AP | EVERYDAY IMPACT — In an infamous biography reviled by Mulroney when it hit bookstores, the late PETER C. NEWMAN quoted the prime minister as saying: "You cannot name a Canadian prime minister who has done as many significant things as I did, because there are none." Mulroney's nine years in power were a rollicking ride for those who lived it. The baritone Quebecer's complicated legacy reverberates to this day, echoing even in some of the more mundane moments of a Hill person's daily routine. Here are a few to ponder via NICK TAYLOR-VAISEY: → When you buy a pack of gum, it's a little bit more expensive thanks to the GST introduced by Mulroney in 1991 — a deficit-fighting driver of federal revenues fiercely opposed by JEAN CHRÉTIEN's Liberals in 1993, but still in place today (even if STEPHEN HARPER slashed it by two points in 2006). → If you pick up anything made wholly or in part by an American factory, it's likely cheaper than in an alternative universe where Mulroney never pulled off the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. → Did you pass a Bloc Québécois MP or staffer on the way into work? They might not have a job on the Hill were it not for Mulroney's failed attempt to persuade Quebec to sign onto the Canadian constitution — a gambit that fueled the rise of a sovereigntist party headed by former Mulroney Cabmin turned nemesis LUCIEN BOUCHARD. (The former Quebec premier recently told journalists he and Mulroney reconciled not long ago.) → And as you watch news tickers flit past with updates on the war in Ukraine, remember Canada played a key role in the fledgling nation's drive for post-Soviet legitimacy as an independent country. On Dec. 2, 1991, Mulroney's government was first in the world to recognize Kyiv. | | | | A message from Universities Canada: Investing in research is also investing in people. Meet Dr. Molly Shoichet whose lab at the University of Toronto is not only doing important research into cross-disciplinary approaches in regenerative medicine but is also currently training over 20 graduate and post-doctoral researchers who are gaining invaluable skills and experience that they will bring with them to their next roles. Investing in Canadian research helps support labs like Dr.Shoichet’s. Learn more now. | | | | | Where the leaders are | |
— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is in northern Ontario to promote the Canada-Ontario health-care agreement.
— NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH is set to speak in the House of Commons this morning about an NDP opposition-day motion. — Bloc Québécois Leader YVES-FRANÇOIS BLANCHET kicks off a three-day tour of the Îles-de-la-Madeleine. | | DRIVING THE DAY | |
PHARMA CONTRAST — It was just a little conspicuous that the NDP managed to beat the Liberals to the punch for a second time in a week over the same announcement.
First, the party scooped news that pharmacare negotiations wrapped and two classes of medication, birth control and diabetes, would be covered. Then, at a 9:30 presser on the Hill Thursday, Health Critic DON DAVIES and Leader JAGMEET SINGH, flanked by a host of caucus members, got out in front of the cameras to claim complete ownership of the victory. — Notable quotables: “The Liberals fought us every step of the way,” said Davies, who was involved in the negotiations. “They resisted. They delayed. They opposed.” “To women who have seen, south of the border, direct attacks on women's rights and a woman’s right to choose, we can say very clearly now that in our country, everyone will have access to free birth control because of New Democrats,” Singh said. — Power imbalance: But it’ll be tough to keep up that edge and presence as the Liberals end up as the ones negotiating and inking deals with the provinces and netting all the photo ops. “That’s the biggest challenge,” Layton-era NDPer KARL BELANGER tells Playbook, and it’s why the party’s scoop last week was such a win. “The megaphone of the Liberal government is much louder than the one of the NDP leader.” At a later announcement Thursday chock full of advocates, Liberals and some New Democrats, Health Minister MARK HOLLAND said there will be “debate about who gets credit,” but both sides “found common ground only because we put our partisan interests in consideration last.” The deal landed just in time. It’s clear that negotiations were fierce and came down to the wire in the end to meet today’s deadline. “At least until the summer, we will have a certain stability in this alliance,” Belanger suggests. — Related reading: National Post’s RYAN TUMILTY is told by one NDP insider the deal could extend the government’s shelf life well into 2025. — Inbox check: The Conservatives spent the past month fundraising over the prospect the deal could blow up, spelling out the need for “urgent” funds for the warchest in case of an election “as early as this spring!” — Curtain pulled back: A rough sketch of the secretive negotiations emerged publicly at the newser announcing the bill. Holland said they began at “great distance” and at a high level, but it eventually came down to “six days where we spent as a tiger team, folks from either side, getting together and getting that last mile done.” Davies said the NDP laid down a “pretty hard red line” that it needed to make progress towards single payer pharmacare, but wanted to begin with an essential medicines list from the outset. That might not come for another year yet. “That proved to be perhaps a step too far.” — Details: Here’s CTV’s RACHEL AIELLOdetailing what’s in the bill. — Long road ahead: Holland is hopeful he can start inking provincial bilats this year, but provinces and territories won’t all sign up at once. Next year, the government must produce a list of essential medicines that could further expand the coverage. — Ballpark cost: Budgetary pressures haunt this venture. Holland let slip at the presser it could be roughly somewhere around C$1.5 billion. “My staff is already going to be upset at me that I am pontificating,” he said. | | | | A message from Universities Canada:   | | | | | For your radar | |
SNIP, SNIP, SNIP — The government's messaging on fiscal restraint adheres to strict guidelines. Here's what we gleaned from a Thursday technical briefing with government officials we’re not allowed to name, plus a presser starring Treasury Board President ANITA ANAND.
→ Rule 1: Do not say the word “cuts” out loud. → Rule 2: Defer to departments whenever possible. — The 3 Rs: Anand and her officials were talking to reporters about the 2024-25 main estimates, an annual planning exercise that lays out almost C$450 billion in spending this year. The minister introduced the document in the House of Commons on Thursday. Anand tucked the details of the first phase of a highly anticipated cost-savings initiative into the announcement. But these weren't spending cuts. A Russian nesting doll of documents explaining the fiscal restraint exercise strategically deployed three words: reallocate, refocus and reduce. → Reallocate: As in, funds that each federal organization found were not offering "value for" taxpayer "money." → Refocus: An even more government-y word from the depths of the Dictionary of Bureaucratese that means basically the same thing. → Reduce: The harshest of the trio, only deployed in annual plans published by individual federal bodies. These are cuts by another name, but we refer anybody even entertaining that word to Rule 1 and Rule 2. — Stated priorities: Anand listed pharmacare, homebuilding, healthcare and support for seniors among her government's biggest focuses. — The big numbers: This handy table gives the topline reduction numbers for each federal organization over three years. Global Affairs has carved out C$541.3 million in money to be reallocated elsewhere. The number for Public Services and Procurement is C$464.5 million. It all adds up to $10.5 billion between 2024-25 and 2026-2027. The next goal is to reach C$15.8 billion by 2028. These are not objectives that impress Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE, whose ambition for spending cuts reaches far deeper into the bureaucracy. — No scissors here: Anand spared several specific line items from the exercise, including Canadian Armed Forces salary, operating and deployment/relocation expenditures; direct benefits to Canadians; and transfers to "Indigenous communities and other orders of government." Still, the Department of National Defence (DND) served up C$2.6 billion in reductions over three years, the largest of any federal body. — Follow the money: Reporters peppered Anand with questions about how much "refocused" money is being "reallocated" to specific priorities. "This is not a one for one," the minister replied, adding that the total funding envelopes for each priority in the main estimates document reflects the reallocations. — Silo watch: Each federal body has posted details of targeted spending reductions in annual departmental plans. But don't expect uniformity from an uber-siloed institution like the Government of Canada. Some attach reductions to individual line items. Others, er, do not. → Exhibit A: DND pledged to "reduce spending on travel by $58,589,937 in 2024-25" — a fraction of its overall goals, but at least a specific fraction. Then again, the department still needs to find C$447.6 million to meet its targets. → Exhibit B: Natural Resources will give up C$271.5 million over three years by "reducing spending on consulting, other professional services, and travel, and eligible program spending by leveraging alternative remote solutions, streamlined processes, modernized tools and work environments, and advanced digital transformation to equip the department in adapting and evolving to meet the needs and expectations of Canadians and the country." OK, then. Sally forth, NRCan. | | WHO'S UP, WHO'S DOWN | |
UP: The life expectancy of the Trudeau government.
DOWN: Willy Wonka fans. | | MEDIA ROOM | |
— AARON WHERRY of CBC News writes: The big problem with the Winnipeg lab affair was obvious from the start: too much secrecy.
— Our colleagues in Europe report that Russian law enforcement has started detaining mourners hours before ALEXEI NAVALNY's funeral begins. — CHELSEA NASH writes: “I spent this week *literally* chasing Conservative MPs who did NOT want to talk about their leader's position on trans people's access to bathrooms, change rooms, and sport.” Here’s what she learned. — From Yellowknife for The Walrus EVA HOLLAND describes exactly how the North runs on Facebook. — Over on Maclean’s, SOULEKA MUSTAPHA writes: Alberta isn’t ready for its population boom.— “It is surprising that Alberta announced a set of rules on Feb. 28 designed to drive out billions of dollars in potential investment in one globally-growing sector: renewable energy,” political science professor DUANE BRATT writes in the Globe. — JAMES MCLEAN of the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking makes the case on The Line that Canada must fight the exploitation of temporary foreign workers. | | | | A message from Universities Canada: Investing in university research is investing in the creation of resilient workforce and a resilient economy. Meet Dr. Jonathan Moore whose Salmon Watersheds Lab at Simon Fraser University is working on nine different research projects related to aquatic ecosystems with a special focus on salmon and monitoring and protecting wild salmon stocks in BC. The lab consists of between 12 to 25 staff and students at a given time who are not only gaining experience first hand fieldwork experience but building critical skills that they will use in future roles.
Investing in Canadian research helps support labs like Dr. Moore’s. Learn more now. | | | | | PROZONE | |
Don’t miss our latest policy newsletter for Pro subscribers.
And check out today's Pro's Morning Trade for the latest from MC13. In other news for Pro readers: — WHO states reject key pandemic deal text. — The EU’s carbon tax may devastate a country it is trying to keep alive: Ukraine. — Oil companies launch next U.S. Supreme Court climate fight. — Phase 1 of pharmacare in Canada could cost C$1.5B. — Tribes seek Biden backing for Line 5 pipeline opposition. | | Playbookers | |
Birthdays: HBD to WILLIAM WOLFE-WYLIE, New Brunswick Premier BLAINE HIGGS, and former Liberal MP MARLENE CATTERALL. Celebrating Saturday: Former Ontario cabinet minister ROD PHILLIPS, senators ROSE-MAY POIRIER and YUEN PAU WOO.
On Sunday: Ex-MP BOB BENZEN and economist JIM STANFORD. Birthdays, gatherings, social notices for this community: Send them our way. Spotted: Sen. PAULETTE SENIOR using her first speech in the Senate to recognize JEAN AUGUSTINE and ROSEMARY BROWN during remarks about Black History Month. MP ROB OLIPHANT paying tribute to the lives of ALAN REDWAY and JOHN GODFREY. “As parliamentarians and citizens, they have left indelible marks,” he said in the House. Movers and shakers: KONRAD VON FINCKENSTEIN is officially the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, dropping “interim” from his title. PMO senior adviser JASMINE GILL, a former Torstar executive, recently disclosed to the ethics commissioner that she is a board member of the Torstar Journalism Foundation. COLIN MCKAY is now head of Canada policy and public affairs at Waabi. Media mentions: JOANNA CHIU is heading to Rest of World to be its China editor. Send Playbookers tips to ottawaplaybook@politico.com . | | ON THE HILL | |
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Thursday’s answer: SIR JAMES DOUGLAS.
Props to KEVIN BOSCH, QASIR DAR, JOHN ECKER, GREGORY THOMAS, JENN JEFFERYS, MATT DELISLE, JIM CAMPBELL, ROBERT MCDOUGALL and MARCEL MARCOTTE. Friday’s question: Parliament recognizes today as the start of Irish Heritage Month. Name the MP who championed the push for the federal government to recognize Canadians of Irish descent. Answers to ottawaplaybook@politico.com Playbook wouldn’t happen without: POLITICO Canada editor Sue Allan, editor Willa Plank and Luiza Ch. Savage. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | 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 | | | | |
