Politics This Morning: Fathers and sons

Good Monday Morning, It’s another March break week, and the House won’t reconvene until April 8. Enjoy the lull in parliamentary activity while you can: budget day (April 16) falls in the second of two full sitting weeks in April. In today’s Politics This Morning: The Greek PM visits Canada, and is the latest world leader to skip Ottawa. The NDP leader goes from the Junos to the picket line in 24 hours. The Conservatives will try once again to get a House committee to study the leaks to China from a Winnipeg microbiology lab. The Liberals beat the Conservatives in fundraising in 2022—well, only if you squint and look at this one particular thing. Today is Greek Independence Day, and the Prime Minister of Greece KYRIAKOS MITSOTAKIS has chosen to spend it in Canada. After meeting with Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU in Montreal yesterday, Mitsotakis has bypassed Ottawa for Toronto, where he will give a keynote address at the Economic Club of Canada at 11:45 a.m. at the Hilton Toronto. Mitsotakis and Trudeau will attend and speak at a Greek community event at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre at 6:30 p.m. Yesterday's meeting between Mitsotakis and Trudeau in Montreal marked the first time a Greek prime minister has visited Canada in 41 years. History has repeated itself in more ways than one over the last eight years of Trudeau governance, and this meeting can be added to the list. In his public remarks upon meeting Mitsotakis, Trudeau noted that it took the friendship between his father, PIERRE TRUDEAU, and then-Greek prime minister ANDREAS PAPANDREOU to convene that meeting, while he credited the current friendship between the two countries with enabling yesterday’s meeting. Notably, Mitsotakis is also the son of a former prime minister of his country. His father, KONSTANTINOS MITSOTAKIS, was the Greek prime minister in the early nineties. As for the news of it all: Mitsotakis signed an agreement yesterday with the Canadian Commercial Corporation to purchase seven waterbombing aircraft to assist in fighting worsening forest fires in southern Europe. The $530-million deal was approved by the Greek parliament on Friday. The planes are being purchased from the Calgary-based manufacturer De Havilland Canada. After the agreement was signed, Trudeau and Mitsotakis attended a Greek Independence Day parade in Montreal. Sidebar: Ottawans get it when touring musicians skip over us for the bigger venues in Toronto and Montreal, but we’re supposed to get the world leaders! Mitsotakis isn’t the first foreign leader to visit Canada without stopping in the nation’s capital—Italian PM GIORGIA MELONI also recently opted for a state visit to Toronto, instead. At that time, Politics This Morning speculated it was because of the large Italian diaspora in the Greater Toronto Area, and for Mitsotakis, it’s likely the same reason. The largest Greek diaspora in Canada does reside in Toronto, with Montreal, Vancouver, and Laval also containing large Greek communities. (During their meeting, Trudeau noted his own riding of Papineau, Que. was celebrating Greek Independence Day yesterday). Nonetheless, we just can’t seem to shake our global reputation as a boring place. In a recent profile of SOPHIE GRÉGOIRE TRUDEAU, Vogue writer MATTIE KAHN described Ottawa as a place “known for government functions and not much else.” Except for when even governments prefer the cooler Montreal and the more densely populated Toronto. So what do we have? A record-breaking skating canal that’s open for three days a year? A semi-functioning transit system? A low-ranking NHL team housed in suburbia? A summer music festival that’s going up in price without improving quality? Readers should note this rant is brought to you from a place of love for this city. Anyways. Will the second time be the charm? On Friday, Conservative MP MICHAEL CHONG tweeted that he was triggering a meeting of the Special Canada-China Relationship Committee to try to get it to undertake a study of “the matters revealed in the Winnipeg lab documents together with the broader concerns they represent in relation to Canada’s national security, as well as the obstacles encountered in obtaining these documents.” The Canada-China Committee is scheduled to meet tomorrow from 8:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. Conservative MP Michael Chong. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade To schedule a meeting outside of regular business, an MP can use Standing Order 106(4), which enables any four members of a committee representing two political parties to request a meeting for any reason with 48 hours notice. Earlier this month, the Conservatives tried to get the House Ethics Committee to undertake such a study, but Liberal MP IQRA KHALID moved to adjourn the meeting before a vote could take place, saying that such a study was not in that committee’s purview. At the time, Chong and Conservative MP MICHAEL COOPER said they chose the Ethics Committee because it also includes issues of Access to Information, which was an angle they wanted to examine in terms of how much the government released regarding the Winnipeg lab leaks, and when. Speaking a little more frankly to The Hill Times at the time, Chong also said it was because that was the committee where the Conservatives could get the signatures they needed to call a meeting outside of the regular schedule. At the Ethics Committee in early March, the motion for a study into the Winnipeg lab leaks came from three Conservative members and one Bloc member. In the news ABBAS RANA reports on the challenges currently plaguing the Liberal caucus, including internal fissures over the war in Gaza and the carbon tax. The Conservatives may be raking in the most cash at a national level, but Liberal riding associations outdid Conservative riding associations by $2-million in 2022, according to a Hill Times analysis by Rana and PETER MAZEREEUW. STEPHEN JEFFERY takes a look at the final lobbying push before the government tables its 2024 budget. In February, the environmental lobby was focused on pushing the government to curb plastics pollution and an oil and gas emissions cap, JESSE CNOCKAERT reports. In today’s Heard on the Hill, MIKE LAPOINTE reports on the candidates looking to replace Conservative MP ED FAST, who announced he would not be seeking re-election. In case you missed it, former prime minister BRIAN MULRONEY’s state funeral was in Montreal on Saturday. Lapointe was there to cover the proceedings. What’s the cabinet up to? Trudeau is in Toronto today, as previously mentioned, as he continues to host the Greek PM. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND has no public events scheduled for today. International Trade Minister MARY NG is leading two trade missions to Malaysia and Vietnam from March 24-29. Employment and Official Languages Minister RANDY BOISSONNAULT is in Montreal this morning, giving remarks at the Solutions to Workforce Challenges Forum at 8:20 a.m. Women and Gender Equality and Youth Minister MARCI IEN is in Winnipeg today along with Northern Affairs Minister DAN VANDAL, who is also the minister for Prairies Economic Development Canada, to announce support for 17 prairies-based organizations to address gender-based violence. That announcement takes place at 11 a.m. Women and Gender Equality and Youth Minister Marci Ien. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade From awards show to picket line NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH attended the Juno Awards last night, but will trade his tux for a picket sign today. He is in Halifax where he will co-host a roundtable with the NDP candidate for Halifax LISA ROBERTS, before holding a press conference to talk about the NDP’s housing policy. On March 10, the NDP announced a new policy calling for the government to establish a “protecting renters fund,” which is a pot of money that “would help not-for-profit organizations buy affordable housing” and “make sure it stays affordable for renters.” Sometime after that, Singh and Roberts will picket alongside striking CN Autoport workers, who are members of Unifor Local 100. According to a March 19 press release from Unifor, conciliatory talks broke down after CN Rail and Autoport offered the workers a worse deal than the one the workers had already refused. What else is happening today? Electricity Canada CEO FRANCIS BRADLEY is holding a press conference on the Hill today at 10:30 a.m. to discuss electricity projects that are being delay or held up in approvals. He also plans to give an overview of a recent Electricity Canada report outlining what it sees as solutions to the problem. There are a couple of announcements being made today by MPs in their respective ridings, including one by Guelph MP LLOYD LONGFIELD. The announcement is presumably about a new Guelph library, given it is being held at what the government describes as the “future site of the Guelph central library” at 10 a.m. Sudbury MP VIVIANE LAPOINTE will make an arts and culture announcement today at a theatre in her riding at 11 a.m. New Brunswick MP WAYNE LONG will make an infrastructure announcement alongside New Brunswick Premier BLAINE HIGGS at the New Brunswick Museum at 10 a.m. What’s in the New Brunswick Museum, you ask? Well, it describes itself as “Canada’s oldest continuing museum," and is devoted to showcasing the province's past. It's currently closed for renovation. It claims to have “something for everyone,” including “giant marine mammals”—probably not alive ones, though, given the next thing listed is “long-extinct creatures fossilized in the rocks underfoot.” It also contains “stunning achievements from Golden Age of Sail.” That’s exactly what it sounds like: when the size and complexity of sailboats reached a peak in the mid-1800s to early 1900s. Listen, no shade to the New Brunswick Museum, but at least we have a strong museum in Ottawa. Former Liberal MP and environment minister CATHERINE MCKENNA will deliver remarks reflecting on her time in politics, the Paris Agreement, and the future of climate action at the University of Ottawa today at 3 p.m. Notice something missing? We don’t know what Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE is up to today because his office does not release a public schedule. Send your news tips and what else you think we missed to cnash@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

Politics This Morning

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Politics This Morning

Politics This Morning: Fathers and sons

Plus, the Conservatives are taking another stab at getting a House committee to examine the Winnipeg lab leaks.

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