| | | | |  | | By Nick Taylor-Vaisey and Zi-Ann Lum | | Presented by |  | | | Thanks for reading Ottawa Playbook. A blockbuster edition in a chock-a-block week: → Two Conservatives and a study in contrast. → Get ready for the mother of all housing plans. → Highlights from the ethics watchdog's annual sponsored travel report. |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | |  Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre addressed the Canada Strong and Free Conference on Thursday. | Photo by Nick Taylor-Vaisey | GOOD COP, BAD COP — While PIERRE POILIEVRE was riling up his base at the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference on Thursday, policy lieutenant ADAM CHAMBERS was in a Toronto conference room surrounded by wonks. — First, the scene at the Westin: You can't get more Ottawa than a diss about briefing notes. With comms director BEN WOODFINDEN at the back of the room, the Conservative leader joked that he was going to ignore his staff's crafted script. (It was a double joke — he spoke for 40-plus minutes without notes.) — Playing to the crowd: Poilievre settled into a version of his stump speech at the conference now known as "The Manning Thing," but not before lacing the campaign-style keynote with personal attacks on JUSTIN TRUDEAU. The room was packed with a specific subset of conservatives — the ones comfortable in suits and ties, willing to spend a few days in the Laurentian den of downtown Ottawa, and keen on schmoozing and plotting as an election edges nearer. Poilievre mocked the "soft blue eyes, fluffy hair and fancy socks" of a PM who doesn't even read his briefing notes. The knock was a slight exaggeration inspired by Trudeau's acknowledgment at the Hogue commission that he often relies on oral briefings. Poilievre riffed on the point repeatedly. — A tribute and trash talk: Poilievre praised the late BRIAN MULRONEY's economic stewardship of a nation ruined by another Trudeau — his frequent take in the wake of the former prime minister's death. The true blues lapped it up. — Fix-it flub: Poilievre heaped praise on a hypothetical "welder who can fuse together metal with his bare hands," a vision challenged by people who know how welders work. (Shades of the Tory leader's understanding of electrical power.) — Stump switch: At the end of most rally speeches, Poilievre likes to paint the scene of two hard-working parents on a porch, treasuring a cold drink, a "powerful" paycheck and the relief of owning their own home. On Thursday, he placed the parents — an energy worker wife and a husband who builds homes, naturally — at a kitchen table. "Maybe it focus-grouped better," we heard in a Westin hallway. OUTSIDE THE OTTAWA BUBBLE — MP ADAM CHAMBERS offered the Public Policy Forum’s Growth Summit a taste of Conservative thinking on productivity. Chambers is his party’s national revenue critic and an intellectual force driving what will become the Conservative platform. On Thursday, he advocated for more accountability in public policy — a typically dry topic that was catnip at this annual confab. — First, a budget rip: Chambers quoted a former boss who repeatedly told staff “what gets measured gets done.” Heads nodded in the packed room. Last year’s budget, Chambers pointed out, was one of the first to be missing a GDP per capita chart. "How are we going to design productive policies if we're not holding the process accountable for delivering on the outcome?” he asked. — Tory priorities: Moderator SEAN SPEER tried to get Chambers to discuss Conservative priorities should they win the next election. “I'm supposed to say ax the tax, build the homes, fix the budget, stop the crime — OK, good, we got that,” Chambers said, triggering laughter. — Return to core basics: Number one is a refocus on federal government objectives, roles and responsibilities to identify the “very core” deliverables, Chambers said. “If you have 100 priorities, you have zero.” — Core priority: The former adviser to late Conservative finance minister JIM FLAHERTY singled out defense. “Defense spending is the price for being taken seriously in the world now,” he said before acknowledging he has yet to read the government’s renewed policy. “That is an area where we have to get really serious.” — Spotted at the PPF: PMO Deputy Chief of Staff BRIAN CLOW, former Trudeau senior adviser JEREMY BROADHURST, National Security Adviser NATHALIE DROUIN, Liberal MP ANTHONY ROTA, Ontario Liberal Leader BONNIE CROMBIE, former Liberal Cabinet minister ANNE MCLELLAN, DAVID HERLE, Toronto Star reporter ROBERT BENZIE, PPF energy policy and global affairs director MIKE BLANCHFIELD, former MARY NG staffer turned Nexus Strategic Consultants partner ARTHUR LAM, former premier KATHLEEN WYNNE, former MP CELINA CAESAR-CHAVANNES and Toronto Mayor OLIVIA CHOW. | | | | A message from Unsmoke Canada: The best option is always to quit nicotine and tobacco use altogether, but smokers who choose not to quit should also be aware that alternatives exist. These alternatives still contain nicotine and are addictive. But, for those adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke, smoke-free alternatives provide an option that does not involve combustion - or "burning" - like smoking a cigarette does. Legislation can change how smoke-free products are regulated. | | | | | HALLWAY CONVERSATION | |
HOUSE MONEY — Federal ministers have been roaming the country with budget measures aimed at anxious millennial and Gen-Z voters. Turns out those were appetizers.
Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU, Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND and Housing Minister SEAN FRASER are dropping the mother of all housing plans today during an 11:15 a.m. announcement in Vaughan, Ont. Playbook caught up with Fraser over the phone last night in between House votes on Bill C-50, the sustainable jobs legislation caught up in a voting marathon. (The minister paused the interview to vote remotely against a Conservative amendment.) Earlier in the day at the Canada Growth Summit, he was interviewed by LISA RAITT, former Cabinet minister and co-chair of the Coalition for a Better Future. The last time Playbook spoke with Fraser, he had just announced the first Housing Accelerator Fund agreement with London, Ont. Ottawa has since inked another 178 deals. — The first step: When Fraser was shuffled to housing last July, he says he bought a new laptop and "started preparing the first set of ideas" that found their way into today's plan. He gathered staffers who reckoned with the scale of the accelerator fund and dove in. "Our team members livestream council meetings with applicants to the fund to see how the debate is playing out," Fraser says. "They are speaking with mayors, city staff and councilors constantly." → The team: Fraser rhymed off staff involved in the accelerator fund, stopping for fear of leaving someone out. Here's who we heard: SAVANNAH DEWOLFE, MICAH RICHARDSON, KYLE FOX, MATTHEW PAISLEY, LIAM MACKINNON, JOSH MBANDI, LINDSAY BASINGER, NATASHA KOCHHAR, AMANPREET PARMAR, MICHAEL KURLIAK, MATT DILLON-LEITCH, MICAAL AHMED, CAMELLIA CELESTINO and JUSTIN MANONI-MILLAR. — The opposition: Fraser has been sparring lately with PIERRE POILIEVRE. The Tory leader is soaring in the polls on the promise of tax cuts and cheaper housing. — The challenge: "We have an opportunity to cure a deficit of hope that exists particularly with young Canadians. But we have to demonstrate that we care about the challenges they're facing, and that we want to solve their problems because it's the right thing to do. And then we've got to show progress." — What keeps him up at night: Fraser worries the Canadian economy has the "productive capacity to actually build the homes that we need." Billions in federal housing incentives will produce a building bottleneck, he says, unless the country encourages "dramatically more people to participate in the trades." Fraser said provinces agree on the lack of housing supply in Canada. "It's not enough to have the intention to do good," he says. "We need to actually implement the measures in our respective areas of jurisdiction." → Case study: Ottawa is hoping the provinces bite on a C$6 billion infrastructure fund that unlocks funding only if provinces build certain kinds of housing. — What's next: The big plan comes today. We'll be watching for reaction from the workers who build homes, the people who want to buy them, the Conservative opposition that's ready to poke holes and provinces that hold sway over what gets built. | | | ON THE RECORD | | | 
Paul Wells accepts the Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism. | POLITICO Canada | TRUTH TELLING — Ottawa journalist and author PAUL WELLS was honored at last night’s PPF Testimonial Dinner with the Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism. Hy Solomon, who passed away in 1991, was Ottawa bureau chief of the Financial Post. Here is some of what Wells had to say when he accepted the honor: I think Hy Solomon would have been surprised, as we all have been, by the changes in our business in the last 20 years. Public figures and businesses and large organizations no longer have to go through reporters to reach the public. They can use social media, email lists, direct mail, YouTube and more. This historic change has the effect of demoting everyone in my line of work. The politicians are right: They can go around us. It doesn’t much matter whether we love that or hate it. It’s just a fact. But I’ve got a question. When politicians, businesses and other organizations go around us, are they doing it to get the truth to you by a shorter path? All of the truth? Let’s see. — It is easier for governments today than it has ever been to tell you why they have missed every greenhouse emissions target they ever set. Have they used that power to provide those explanations? — Government could have gone right around me to tell you which foreign regimes sought to intimidate diaspora communities from exercising the rights that should belong to everyone in Canada. — Or why, precisely, most of the Canada Digital Adoption Program shut down two years early. — These days no government needs the help of The Globe and Mail or Le Devoir to tell you who’s getting richest off connections that are valuable only because Ottawa is far too complicated for ordinary citizens to navigate. — And nothing is stopping the people who know from telling the rest of us what JENNI BYRNE does within a party that might soon form a federal government. What her mandate is. And what its limitations are. If any government or party or business wants to tell you these things, I sure can’t stop it. But somehow they don’t volunteer this sort of information. So people like me still have to ask, and persist, and search, and observe, and use all of our wits to get that information and make it available to citizens. So they can function as citizens, and not just as audiences. Read and subscribe to the Paul Wells Substack here. The PPF Annual Testimonial Dinner also honored JP GLADU, JAYNA HEFFORD, JANICE CHARETTE, MARC GARNEAU and MURAD AL-KATIB. RAVEN LACERTE, co-founder of the Moose Hide Campaign, received the Emerging Leader Award. Highlights of the evening are here. | | | | A message from Unsmoke Canada:   | | | | | Talk of the town | |
CHAOS DAY — Everybody felt FOMO somewhere Thursday as overlapping politics and policy gabfests took over convention halls and meeting rooms across Toronto and Ottawa. Anyone not at the Canada Growth Summit, CSFN conference or Progress Summit might've been in one of these rooms:
— DemocracyXChange: An annual conference for Toronto's public policy crowd. Theme: "Courage through chaos." — The Cardus Institute held a parallel conference to the Canada Strong and Free event at the Westin, in partnership with The Hub. JASON KENNEY kicked things off with a keynote: "Does Canada have a national identity?" — The Canadian Global Affairs Institute ran a day-long gathering at 150 Elgin on trade. On the speakers' list: former chief trade negotiator STEVE VERHEUL. | | Where the leaders are | |
— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is in Vaughan, Ont., to make a major housing announcement at 11:15 a.m. Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND and Housing Minister SEAN FRASER will also attend.
— Green Leader ELIZABETH MAY is in Ottawa. — We have yet to see itineraries for Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE, Bloc Québécois Leader YVES-FRANÇOIS BLANCHET and NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH.
| | DULY NOTED | |
— The Canada Strong and Free conference continues at the Westin in Ottawa, featuring an 8:30 a.m. address by Alberta Premier DANIELLE SMITH and a 3:30 p.m. appearance by MP MICHAEL CHONG on a panel addressing foreign interference.
— At the Progress Summit at the Delta Hotel, Toronto Mayor OLIVIA CHOW and PETER FRAGISKATOS, parliamentary secretary of housing, take part in a 9:45 a.m. fireside chat titled, “Getting Government Back into the Business of Building Housing.” | | | WHO'S UP, WHO'S DOWN | | |
UP: Bloc MP LOUIS PLAMONDON, who on Wednesday became the longest continuously serving MP in Canadian history. First elected in 1984, he has served for 39 years and seven months.
DOWN: Intelligence memos, evidently. In related listening: BOB FIFE is on "The Decibel" this morning to review what we’ve learned from the foreign interference inquiry. "The Big Story" pod explores the same question today with LAURA STEPHENSON, co-director of The Consortium on Electoral Democracy.
| | PAPER TRAIL | |
WHILE YOU WERE SURVIVING CHAOS WEEK — The federal ethics watchdog dropped its annual sponsored travel report this week, finding the number of accepted trips hit “historic” levels last year.
In 2023, MPs accepted 93 sponsored junkets — two-thirds more than what was reported the previous year. Total value of sponsored travel: C$847,828.22. — Frame of reference: The report, published earlier this week by Ethics Commissioner KONRAD VON FINCKENSTEIN, noted that between 2007 and 2019, MPs accepted 83 trips on average annually. “In the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, the average was just 7,” it read. — Top spender: The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs: C$335,264.99. Who accepted: 21 MPs including SCOTT AITCHISON, LUC BERTHOLD, MAXIME BLANCHETTE-JONCAS, KODY BLOIS, VALERIE BRADFORD, ADAM CHAMBERS, MARTIN CHAMPOUX, GEORGE CHAHAL, SHAUN CHEN, KERRY-LYNNE FINDLAY, RHÉAL FORTIN, LAILA GOODRIDGE, JASRAJ SINGH HALLAN, LISA HEPFNER, SHELBY KRAMP-NEUMAN, VIVIANE LAPOINTE, RICHARD MARTEL, PIERRE PAUL-HUS, ANDREW SCHEER, PETER SCHIEFKE and BRENDA SHANAHAN. — Runner-up: Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada: C$167,026.87. Who accepted: 16 MPs including CHANDRA ARYA, MICHAEL BARRETT, STÉPHANE BERGERON, JAMES BEZAN, MICHAEL CHONG, MICHAEL COOPER, RAQUEL DANCHO, MARIE-HÉLÈNE GAUDREAU, GARNETT GENUIS, MARILÈNE GILL, KEN HARDIE, MELISSA LANTSMAN, LINDSAY MATHYSSEN, JOHN MCKAY, RANDEEP SARAI and KYLE SEEBACK. Noted: Tory MP CHERYL GALLANT was the only member whose trip to Taipei last year filed “Government of Taiwan” as the sponsor of her trip valued at C$10,343.33. — Honorable mentions: LESLYN LEWIS’ C$16,577.00 in travel expenses to attend JORDAN PETERSON’s Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London. Tory MP DAN MUYS accepted a September trip to Kerala, India “as there is a large Kerala diaspora in my riding, including the Hamilton Malayalee Samajam.” Filings show the trip was paid for by BELENT MATHEW, a candidate for the CPC nomination in Ajax. — Most sponsored trips taken: Liberal MP JUDY SGRO accepted three separate junkets last year to Brussels, Paris and Prague. | | MEDIA ROOM | |
— The Star's MARK RAMZY writes: JAGMEET SINGH backpedals on consumer carbon levy.
— Pollara senior adviser ANDRÉ TURCOTTE contemplates polling that found 41 percent of Conservative voters would like to see Donald Trump win the next presidential election, many think a second Trump presidency would be bad for Canada. — The headline out of CHRYSTIA FREELAND's budget roadshow stop du jour: Canada will allow 30-year mortgages for first-time homebuyers, — From 338Canada's PHILIPPE J. FOURNIER: "Pallas Data: Pre-budget rollout by Liberals doesn't move needle, Conservatives lead by 15 points" — The first episode of "Phoenixed," a podcast about Canada's doomed federal payroll system, is out. Among the credits: reporter GLEN MCGREGOR. — At The Hub, former STEPHEN HARPER chief of staff IAN BRODIE talks through the old boss's high-volume consumption of written briefing notes. | | PROZONE | |
Our latest policy newsletter for Pro subscribers from KYLE DUGGAN: Countdown to USMCA review.
In other news for Pro readers: — Trump eyes top Texas MAGA disciple for USDA chief. — Biden admin skirts calls for Line 5 pipeline shutdown. — U.S. Senate Advanced Nuclear Caucus to advance nuclear reactors. — Prescribed burns conflict with air rules, U.S. forest chief says. — U.S. Department of Transportation awards $830M in climate infrastructure grants. | | PLAYBOOKERS | |
Birthdays: HBD to Liberal MP SHERRY ROMANADO, who shares the day with ex-Quebec MNA CLAIRE SAMSON and climate and energy expert MARK JACCARD. Greetings also go to Bluesky senior associate MICHAEL HOOD, the former commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
On Saturday: Liberal MPs PETER SCHIEFKE and WAYNE LONG, former MP KEITH MARTIN and retired Alberta MLA BRIDGET PASTOOR. On Sunday: Sen. PERCY MOCKLER and JACQUES OLIVIER. Movers and shakers: Veteran Conservative campaign operative STEVE OUTHOUSE has started a new gig as principal secretary to New Brunswick Premier BLAINE HIGGS. … DIAMOND ISINGER will soon start as policy director at the Federation of Community Social Services of B.C. Media mentions: The shortlist for the C$60,000 Donner Prize is out. The award recognizes the best public policy book written by a Canadian. The finalists are: — "The Legal Singularity: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Law Radically Better," by ABDI AIDID and BENJAMIN ALARIE — "Pandemic Panic: How Canadian Government Responses to Covid-19 Changed Civil Liberties Forever," by JOANNA BARON and CHRISTINE VAN GEYN — "Who Owns Outer Space? International Law, Astrophysics, and the Sustainable Development of Space," by MICHAEL BYERS and AARON BOLEY — "The Privacy Fallacy: Harm and Power in the Information Economy," by IGNACIO COFONE — "Wrongfully Convicted: Guilty Pleas, Imagined Crimes, and What Canada Must Do to Safeguard Justice," by KENT ROACH | | | | A message from Unsmoke Canada: There’s no doubt Canada can be a global leader in reducing the harm caused by smoking, but it requires actionable steps. Governments should help adult smokers by openly recognizing the harm reduction potential of smoke-free products and modernizing Canadian legislation. Learn more about how we can accelerate change. | | | | | ON THE HILL | |
1 p.m. The special House committee on Canada-China relations hears from Health Canada Deputy Minister STEPHEN LUCAS and Public Health Agency of Canada President HEATHER JEFFREY.
| | TRIVIA | |
Thursday’s answer: RONALD REAGAN wrote: “Getting shot hurts.”
Props to STEPHEN HAAS, SARA MAY, DOUG RICE, MAUREEN MACGILLIVRAY, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, JIM CAMPBELL, SCOTT LOHNES, PATRICK DION, MARY JANE ALLAN, MARCEL MARCOTTE and MARK AGNEW. Friday’s question: In what year did the Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner go on the record? Answers to ottawaplaybook@politico.com Writing Monday’s Ottawa Playbook: Kyle Duggan. | | | | 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 | | | | |
