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Thanks for reading the Ottawa Playbook. Let’s get to it. → Behind the scenes of G7 planning. → A Green Party makeover. → The latest updates to our nomination tracker. |  | DRIVING THE DAY | |
G8-KEEPERS — DONALD TRUMP wants VLADIMIR PUTIN back in the G7.
“I think it was a mistake to throw them out,” he told reporters in the Oval Office last week. The G7 gave Russia the boot in 2014 as hostilities ratcheted up in Ukraine. Former Prime Minister STEPHEN HARPER famously had stern words for Putin on the matter. → Countdown: 117 days until the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta. — Fill in the blanks: Ottawa's ambition for Canada's 2025 G7 presidency is still mostly a mystery. Seven years after the Trump outburst that capped the summit in Quebec, Canadians are in a moment of considerable flux. For starters, it's not clear who the prime minister will be when foreign leaders arrive in Canada. Plus, the state of Canada-U.S. relations in June is anybody's guess. But bureaucrats have been planning the calendar for months. Deputy ministers have been coordinating interdepartmental efforts since at least October. G7 foreign ministers are set to meet March 12-14 in Charlevoix, Quebec. A trail of briefing notes offers clues to what's on tap — including a potential spotlight on energy affordability. — Meetings before the meetings: CINDY TERMORSHUIZEN is running point on G7 planning. Termorshuizen is Trudeau’s sherpa — a personal representative who works with high-ranking officials from the other six countries. Sherpas typically meet a few times ahead of the summit. Termorshuizen kicked things off with a Vancouver check-in on Jan. 29-31. Termorshuizen is also "conducting targeted engagement with government and industry representatives, Indigenous Peoples, academics, youth, women, and various experts," Global Affairs Canada said in a statement. On Feb. 4, she met with G7 "engagement groups" — non-government bodies that advise the member states. → The Canadian Chamber of Commerce leads the "Business 7," which will gather May 15-16 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. → The Canadian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development are "pressing the government to prioritize worker-first solutions and for Canada to use every tool at our disposal." — One more key player: Each country appoints a "political director" to focus on the foreign ministers' meetings. They’ve met several times already in 2025. Canada's political director is DAVID ANGELL, whose GAC day job is assistant deputy minister for international security and political affairs. — Agenda pieces: Canada's G7 website refers to issues ranging from "international peace and security to global economic stability and growth, to the digital transition." In France last week, Trudeau added artificial intelligence to the agenda. | | | | A message from TikTok Sparks Good Canada: TIKTOK SPARKS GOOD FOR CANADIAN SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS Learn more. | | |
ENERGY PRIORITIES — Documents obtained by Playbook via an access-to-information request reveal some of the behind-the-scenes prep.
Last November, Natural Resources DM MICHAEL VANDERGRIFT approved C$945,000 in grants for a pair of International Energy Agency initiatives that “support” the G7 presidency. → The first IEA project, worth up to C$860,000, will focus on “energy security and ensuring an inclusive transition.” The money will pay for “research, policy analysis, reports, drawing-up next steps/road maps, and support towards overall preparations for” Canada's big year. Most details TBD. → The second IEA project, worth up to C$85,000, will produce a report and workshop that “will allow Canada to showcase its leadership on the important linkage between energy efficiency and affordability.” | | THREE THINGS WE'RE WATCHING | | | 
Over the next couple of months we will get convergence" on the budget goal, NATO Secretary Mark Rutte said, adding that to increase spending "we will have to prioritize defense over other stuff.” | Matthias Schrader/AP Photo | NATO, ICYMI — NATO members will have to boost their defense spending by “considerably more than 3 percent” of GDP, NATO Secretary General MARK RUTTE told our colleagues PAUL MCLEARY and JOSHUA POSANER on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. INFLATION NUMBERS — Statistics Canada will release the consumer price index for January this morning. Economists suggest it will hold steady. ELECTION IN GERMANY — The EU’s most populous country heads to the polls Sunday. The election will be a measure of how far the world’s third-biggest economy has swung to the right, POLITICO’s NETTE NÖSTLINGER writes from Berlin. | | Where the leaders are | |
— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is in Montreal with no public events on his itinerary.
— Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE headlines an evening party fundraiser at a private residence in Thornhill, Ontario. — Bloc Québécois Leader YVES-FRANÇOIS BLANCHET has not shared his public agenda. — Green Co-leaders ELIZABETH MAY and JONATHAN PEDNEAULT will join Green MP MIKE MORRICE in West Block for a press conference at 10 a.m. (More on this below.) — NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH is in Hamilton, Ontario, to unveil his party's "plan to protect workers." He'll meet with steelworkers at 10 a.m. before speaking to reporters an hour later. Singh will be joined by MARTY WARREN and KEVON STEWART from United Steelworkers Canada, NDP MP MATTHEW GREEN and Hamilton Mountain candidate MONIQUE TAYLOR. | | DULY NOTED | |
— Liberal leadership contender MARK CARNEY headlines a pair of Greater Toronto Area campaign fundraisers — first at Brampton's Speranza Banquet Hall, then at Mississauga's Versailles Convention Centre (which can accommodate up to 1,200 people).
| | HALLWAY CONVERSATION | | | 
"It's about our identity — what it is that we're fighting for," Jonathan Pedneault says of the Green Party rebrand, which will be revealed this morning. | Sean Kilpatrick, The Canadian Press | GREEN ENERGY — This morning on the Hill, the Green Party will formally unveil its “first major rebrand in two decades.” JONATHAN PEDNEAULT, who just recently returned as party co-leader with ELIZABETH MAY, spoke with Playbook on Monday about the makeover. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Why a rebrand? It's a new time for Canadian politics. And it's also a new party in many ways. The party's gone through hell and back, to say it bluntly. And it was important for us to signify that we're back. We will continue to be bold, but we will be bold in a different way — in a way that hopefully will inspire Canadians and bring a bit of an antidote to the politics of despair we’re hearing from the Conservatives and the same old sort of milquetoast progressive policies we get from the Liberals. We've got new leadership. It felt natural for us to engage in this exercise, which is — as with most rebranding exercises — about something much deeper than a simple a new logo. It's about our identity — what it is that we're fighting for — and why do we exist, purely and simply? Those are big questions. Those are big questions, indeed, but questions I think every institution — certainly every political party — ought to ask themselves from time to time. How would you describe your state of election readiness? We’re more ready for elections than we’ve been in previous elections. The platform is almost finished. We're progressing swiftly with candidate nominations. … We've got various nomination races as well throughout the country, including in places where we typically have more difficulties recruiting, such as Newfoundland and Labrador, for example. I'd say we're in a pretty good state. DONALD TRUMP has stepped away from global climate action. Where does that leave the conversation in Canada? We were always expecting the climate agenda to come under severe attack, irrespective of Trump. Now the situation brings a number of political actors to want to retreat on that front in order to appease what is a decidedly climate-skeptic government south of the border. For us, it's going to be very important to bring forth the discussion at every turn during this election. We can't pretend as though the climate emergency is simply going to wait until we've found some sort of solution in respect to our relationship with our neighbors to the south. Is there a specific new audience you're hoping to draw with the rebrand? We're hoping to be able to speak to people who are rightfully so disappointed with the state of our politics. I think there are many such people around. What brought you back to the Green Party? The short answer is that it is ultimately the one party that consistently has been able to identify threats and to propose solutions to those threats early on. That very much speaks to my own experience as a journalist and as a human rights investigator. It is crucial that Canadians realize just how interconnected the world that we live in currently is, and how vulnerable we are — not only to climate change, but also to major geopolitical shifts, as we are all now forced to realize. | | | | A message from TikTok Sparks Good Canada:  
| | | | | NOMINATION WATCH | | As a federal election nears, we're tracking the number of nominated candidates in each major party — and noting significant names as they emerge. A full slate is 343 candidates. Last week's numbers are in parentheses. — Conservative: n/a (226) — Liberal: 147 (145) — NDP: 140 (133) — Green: 121 (95) — Bloc Québécois: 5 (4) → Worth noting: We didn't hear back from the Conservatives this week … New Democrats expect to have 150 nominated candidates by the end of the week … GINETTE LAVACK was acclaimed on Sunday as the Liberal candidate in St. Boniface-St. Vital, Manitoba. | | MEDIA ROOM | |
— Federal and Haida leaders signed a historic agreement Monday recognizing Aboriginal title over Haida Gwaii. The Canadian Press was at the ceremony and reported: “With tears streaming down his face, Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU told a gathering of Haida Nation leaders and community members that he couldn’t think of a better place to make one of his final trips as Canada’s leader.”
— JEFF GRAY and LAURA STONE of the Globe have 5 takeaways from last night’s Ontario leadership debate. — “Perhaps the most unexpected effect of Trump’s threats is the shift in how Quebec sees its place in the country,” TOULA DRIMONIS writes at The Walrus. — The Sun’s BRIAN LILLEY interviewed STEVE BANNON last week in Washington. “The new great game of the 21st century is going to be the Arctic,” the former Trump adviser said. “Canada’s former most secure border — your northern provinces — are now your soft underbelly.” — A French-led effort by European leaders to present a united front on Ukraine fizzled Monday as they failed to agree on sending troops to police a possible peace deal, POLITICO’s NICHOLAS VINOCUR and VICTOR GOURY-LAFFONT report from Paris. — And POLITICO’s STEFAN BOSCIA asks from London: Is Britain really ready to lead a Ukraine peacekeeping force? — MARIYA POSTELNYAK of the Globe reports that Ottawa’s just-ended GST holiday brought more headaches than revenue for business owners. | | Caught our ear | |
BLACK AND WHITE, DEAD ALL OVER — “Done well, local news lets people know what their neighbors are doing, what they’re thinking, who they are,” ANDREW PHILLIPS, EDWARD GREENSPON and ALISON UNCLES write in “The Lost Estate,” a new Public Policy Forum report on the future of local journalism. “In the absence of that shared commons, all manner of erosion occurs.”
The report was conducted with the Rideau Hall Foundation and the Michener Awards Foundation. — Good news: There are smart new ventures and startups, like The Local, Cabin Radio, Village Media and the Haida Gwaii News. — Bad news: More than 340 Canadian communities have lost local news providers since 2008. Download the PPF report here. And hear it discussed on the latest episode of the “Wonk” pod. | | | | We’ve re-imagined and expanded our Inside Congress newsletter to give you unmatched reporting on Capitol Hill politics and policy -- and we'll get it to your inbox even earlier. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | PROZONE | |
The latest headlines for Pro subscribers:
— Possible DOGE access to private taxpayer data sparks outcry. — Poland to Europe: Don't play games with Trump, spend more on defense. — Europe's peace offerings to Trump: Gas, cars and guns. — EU delaying Russia LNG ban decision due to Trump trade talks. — California lawmakers propose bill requiring tethered plastic bottle caps. | | PLAYBOOKERS | |
Birthdays: HBD to Conservative MP DEAN ALLISON, former Sen. DAVID TKACHUK, former broadcaster and politician MOE SIHOTA, and former Conservative MPs BERNARD VALCOURT and TED MENZIES. Bluesky consultant ANGELO BAKOULAS also celebrates.
Got a document to share? A birthday coming up? Send it all our way. Spotted: Sen. PAULA SIMONS, announcing on LinkedIn that “with a mixture of regret and relief,” that she’s leaving Facebook and Instagram. “It’s not just hateful comments from trolls — those are old hat,” she said. “It is Facebook’s practice of filling my feed with racist, transphobic, misogynist and smutty posts that is driving me off the site.” Media mentions: PIERRE JOBIN and HANNAH THIBEDEAU have been tapped to moderate the Liberal leadership debates. KYLE DUGGAN reports that the Liberal leadership contenders are all paid up. In memoriam: Novelist, playwright and proud Acadian ANTONINE MAILLET has died. The Globe’s obituary is here. “I know her voice will continue to inspire generations to celebrate the stories that make Canada’s cultural tapestry so rich and diverse,” the PM said in a statement. French President EMMANUEL MACRON also paid tribute to Maillet. | | | | A new era in Washington calls for sharper insights. Get faster policy scoops, more congressional coverage, and a re-imagined newsletter under the leadership of Jack Blanchard. Subscribe to our Playbook Newsletter today. | | | | | | | TRIVIA | | Monday’s answer: In the final game of a six-game match, GARRY KASPAROV defeated Deep Blue, IBM’s chess-playing computer. Props to ABHAY KATOCH, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, LAURA JARVIS, MARC LEBLANC, PAUL PARK, PATRICK DION, GORDON RANDALL, CHRIS RANDS, RODDY MCFALL, BOB GORDON, RAY DEL BIANCO, PEADAR Ó LAMHNA and MARCEL MARCOTTE. Today’s question: On this date in history, who said: “Well, welcome to the 1980s.” For a bonus mark: What was the occasion? Answers to ottawaplaybook@politico.com . Wednesday's Playbook will be written by SUE ALLAN and NICK TAYLOR-VAISEY. | | | | A message from TikTok Sparks Good Canada: Since Corey McMullan started sharing his family-owned appliance store from Smiths Falls, Ontario on TikTok, his sales have nearly doubled. 80-90% of his business now comes from TikTok, allowing him to secure the family business for the next generation. Learn more. | | | | | | | 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 | | | |
