DRAIN THE SWAMP — Tory leader PIERRE POILIEVRE's latest message to corporate Canada took direct aim at lobbying and the way Ottawa works. Here's the drill: a "Hill Day" meeting blitz, a luncheon panel off the Hill, detailed testimony at parliamentary committees, and a buzzy reception to cap it off. Poilievre's advice to anybody who wants a policy to become a law: Scrap the standard operating procedure. "Your communications must reach truckers, waitresses, nurses, carpenters — all the people who are too productive" to watch ParlVu or CPAC, he wrote Friday in the National Post. Translation: Don't send the C-suite to Ottawa and expect much of a response from Poilievre without buy-in from the bottom of the corporate food chain. This was, as we say, a talker that spawned myriad internal memos. Imagine a world in which lobbyists and PR pros didn't do their Hill thing. — Spare a thought for the poorly paid interns who dine on free poutine and beer. They owe their daily spread to a parade of industry and advocacy groups and the Hill-adjacent firms paid handsomely to get the good word out to parliamentarians about a cause. Open bars are a must, as are the heat lamps keeping the sliders warm. Interns survive on it. MPs and senators and staffers and journalists and lobbyists don't, though everybody's a freeloader after 5:30 p.m. → Alternate timeline: What would everybody do if the reception-industrial complex came crashing down? Pile into the nearest Royal Oak? Pay for a meal? In this economy? — Target-rich environment: Poilievre created a bad PR day for a corporate hit list, dismissing TC Energy and Teck Resources as "gutless" for not hitting back at Ottawa's refusal to play ball on resource projects. He called out Beer Canada (a frequent Poilievre target) for going soft. He launched a straight-up divestment campaign against the Business Council of Alberta and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, calling on their members to drop out. (It didn't take long to confirm the Conservative Alberta caucus is no fan of the biz lobby group.) — The Pierre whisperers: When Poilievre delivered a series of anti-lobbyist broadsides at the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade in March, conservative thinkers jumped at the chance to explain what he really meant. Former Hill staffer REGAN WATTS penned a prescient op-ed at The Hub before Poilievre landed in Vancouver. GINNY ROTH, the comms director on Poilievre's leadership campaign, interpreted his speech — also at The Hub. The site's most recent Dialogues podcast considered Poilievre's approach. (We're detecting a pattern here.) — Cheeky rebuttal: Lobbyists who know their way around the federal bureaucracy have a comeback for feisty Conservatives skeptical of the Queen Street crew. All it takes is one question: "Do you really trust all the policymaking to bureaucrats?" — Donor circuit: Poilievre is taking his message on the road this week with at least two fundraisers in the Greater Toronto Area. He'll visit a private residence in North York on Thursday and a Saturday rally at a transport logistics company in Mississauga. BUDGET DEBATE — With an extended budget roadshow mostly in the rear view, the House takes up debate on the 686-page omnibus budget bill packed with at least some of the many headline measures — along with a pile of other legislative tweaks. — No drama: We already know Bill C-69 has the support of the House. Last week, the NDP cast key votes for the government's budgetary policy. — OK, maybe some: This Conservative opposition gums up any Liberal priority in the House. The party dug into its bag of tricks last December, forcing a House vote all-nighter on government spending estimates and attempting similar tactics on a sustainable jobs bill at the House natural resources committee. Liberals and New Democrats forced a rule change that prevents vote marathons between midnight and 9 a.m., ending the prospect of more all-nighters. But the Tory House leader's office on West Block's fourth floor is surely cooking up something in the spirit of making the government's life generally miserable. — Fine-tooth comb: The House finance committee probes C-69's tax policy measures at a Tuesday meeting. Bureaucrats who deal in personal and business income tax, industrial decarbonization tax, sales tax, international tax, and environmental taxation will take questions for two hours. — Also on the agenda: The House will debate an opposition motion on Thursday. FOREIGN INTERFERENCE — Expect a new bill to counter foreign interference to be introduced in the House any day now. CityNews' CORMAC MAC SWEENEY spotted forthcoming legislation on the House notice paper, noting Public Safety Minister DOMINIC LEBLANC's recent comments suggesting a foreign agent registry would be included in a future bill. — Tabling watch: LeBlanc dropped notice on May 3, and it's typically only a few days between that initial step and first reading in the chamber. — Registry 101: The opposition has long called for a registry of foreign agents operating in Canada. Diaspora groups have also pushed for the measure. The government launched consultations on a hypothetical registry last spring, and a "what we heard" report published in November thanked participants for feedback on "the development of a potential first-ever Foreign Influence Transparency Registry for Canada." → Hints: On the way out of a Tuesday Cabinet meeting, LeBlanc told reporters he was "confident that the foreign influence registry will be part of a broader effort to strengthen legislation with respect to countering foreign interference." But the minister wouldn't tell CTV's VASSY KAPELOS if a registry is part of the legislation to be revealed in the coming days. | 
