Good morning.
We're going to start the newsletter today with a note from Jessica Leeder (@jessleeder):
It has been less than two months since I took up my new post as the Globe's Atlantic reporter in Halifax, but I've been living in Nova Scotia since last winter. A lot of my time since landing here has been devoted to trying to understand the narrative of Atlantic Canada. It is an understatement to say that daily life – and the political concerns that go with it – is unique on the eastern side of the country. With the change of pace that comes with distance from Ottawa and Toronto, there are many tradeoffs people here know well.
They ripple out from health care, to the job market and beyond. You'll see those themes in my upcoming work as I explore how living here impacts not just quality of life but the broader state of it, from the workplace to home. I've written recently on a prominent poverty law activist who has an interesting new approach to test cases, lobster wars that blend both black market dynamics and an unresolved court dispute over Indigenous fishing rights that has been demanding attention in Ottawa. Upcoming stories on my docket include the future of our lobster, cod and other fisheries – on these files, what happens on the ocean has never been far from Ottawa.
Health care, from the expansive opioid file to marijuana legalization and New Brunswick's newly fractured public-health system, is large on my radar. So are stories that deal with resettlement of both new refugees and lifelong residents of small and struggling communities. As the Globe charts a renewed path in the Atlantic region, I'll look forward to hearing from many of you. Please send along your thoughts, story ideas and suggestions – I'm always happy for input and feedback. You can reach me at jleeder@globeandmail.com or on Twitter @jessleeder.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa, Mayaz Alam in Toronto and James Keller in Vancouver. If you're reading this on the web or someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, you can sign up for Politics Briefing and all Globe newsletters here. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
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CANADIAN HEADLINES
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has his first official meeting with U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft this morning.
Employment Minister Patty Hajdu says the harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein are encouraging Canadian women to come forward with their own stories of inappropriate workplace conduct. "We saw that with the #MeToo hashtag. I think where I'd like that conversation to evolve to, though, is for men to start talking about the actions they're going to take in the workplace and in their daily lives, to be reflecting on how their behaviour impacts women," Ms. Hajdu said. In fact, two Conservative MPs -- Alice Wong and Karen Vecchio -- spoke yesterday about incidents they've experienced on the Hill.
The federal government is imposing new term limits on academics in the Canada Research Chairs program to address its difficulties with diversity.
The Liberals still won't say which cabinet ministers took advantage of an ethics loophole.
Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O'Regan underwent serious and sudden surgery – but not life-threatening – and is recovering well, his office says.
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled against a B.C. First Nation in a case that weighed a proposal for a massive ski resort against an area with spiritual significance to Indigenous peoples. The Ktunaxa Nation launched a court challenge in 2012 after the B.C. government approved the Jumbo Glacier Resort. The Ktunaxa opposed on religious grounds, arguing the development would disturb the spiritual home of grizzly bears. The high court, in a 7-2 decision, says the Charter of Rights and Freedoms only protects the right to hold religious beliefs and practise them — but not the "focal point" of that religious belief. The Jumbo resort's fate is far from clear, however. Very little work has been done on the project, and the developer is fighting its own legal challenge of a provincial government decision that allowed its environmental approval to expire.
The debate about B.C.'s Site C hydroelectric dam is bringing new attention to a treaty with the United States to manage the Columbia River. Under the treaty, B.C. manages the flow of the Columbia River to reduce flood risks in the U.S. with three dams, and in exchange is entitled to a share of the power. Right now, B.C. sells most of that power back to the United States. But the B.C. Utilities Commission, which this week released a critical report about Site C, suggests the province could just keep that power for itself, reducing the need for Site C. BC Hydro says that wouldn't be feasible.
And media and politics are intersecting in Toronto: Rod Phillips, chair of the Postmedia chain of newspaper, is running for the Ontario Progressive Conservatives in the next election.
What everyone is talking about
Lisa Kramer (The Globe and Mail) on daylight-saving time: "The informal advantages of abolishing time changes are clear to anyone who has ever hit snooze on their alarm clock or gulped back an extra cup of coffee to deal with the consequences of a time change. Deeper analysis of the society-wide economic benefits of abolishing time changes supports what our bodies tell us. We should listen."
Robert Brym (The Globe and Mail) on Statscan and Canada's Jewish population: "No one could reasonably suggest that more than half of Canada's Jews were removed from the census intentionally. However, the Jewish community has every right to be upset that its educational and social-service planning will be imperilled by the vagaries of Statistics Canada's work and that the community is less likely to be recognized for its contribution to Canadian society now that its numbers have dropped so precipitously in the official population count."
Jean Leclair (The Globe and Mail) on Anglo Canada and Bill 62: "There is something almost touching about the sanctimonious posturing of many English Canadian politicians and journalists when they comment on Quebec's attempts at dealing with religious issues. The very unanimity of the disgust is all the more ironic when one remembers that not so long ago, in September of 2013, an Angus Reid poll revealed that 44 per cent of Albertans liked the Quebec Charter of Values, a quarter of them strongly, and so did 40 per cent of Ontarians. Or when one remembers that the founders of The Rebel Media do not happen to reside in Saguenay, or that the late Rob Ford, Canada's Trump and a self-avowed 'racist,' was not the mayor of Montreal."
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on Site C: "BC Hydro ratepayers would have been spared this no-win situation had the previous government made the right call in the first place. But the short-term political allure of a hydro megaproject took precedence over the interests of future generations of British Columbians. This is a recurring pattern among Canada's Big Hydro monopolies, which live to build. Site C does not threaten to cripple British Columbia's finances the way the $12.7-billion (at last count) Muskrat Falls project will mortgage Newfoundlanders' future for generations to come. But BC Hydro's fast-growing debt load does threaten to cost B.C. its stellar credit rating. And if the B.C. government has to subsidize electricity rates because of Site C, to take the bite of rising hydro bills, then the burden will fall on all B.C. taxpayers." (for subscribers)
Gary Mason (The Globe and Mail) on Vancouver's housing crisis: "People are frustrated and angry and want our politicians to take bold moves, not timid ones. Last year, B.C. introduced a foreign-buyers tax that seemed to cool things down for a while, but not for long. And now, according to recent figures, off-shore buyers are returning."
Tim Harper (Toronto Star) on reconciliation: "Official Ottawa is where urgency goes to die. Two of the most vital measures of Indigenous reconciliation, the gap in child welfare funding and the national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, have returned to centre stage this week. To listen to those seeking change in recent days is to hear the quintessential Canadian laments about stifling bureaucracy, overlapping jurisdictions and work being done at cross purposes."
Robyn Urback (CBC) on Governor-General Julie Payette: "Nevertheless, if Payette is going to weigh in on these issues [such as climate change] — and it's somewhat expected that she will, being an engineer and and astronaut and all — there is a proper way to do so. Had Payette used her platform to urge Canadians to be mindful of their carbon footprints, or laud the scientific breakthroughs in modern medicine, or even to warn about the dangers of climate change, I'd probably be writing my 37th column on Ontario's stupid marijuana plan right now and not one on the Governor-General. But she didn't do that. Instead, Payette essentially mocked people for believing in horoscopes, alternative medicine, divine intervention and for not believing in climate change, incredulous that some Canadians would hold those views 'still today in learned society.'
Dana Milbank (Washington Post) on all the president's nominees: "President Trump promised to "hire the best people." And, as scientists go, Clovis is an excellent talk-show host. Among his scientific breakthroughs: being 'extremely skeptical' of climate change, calling homosexuality 'a choice,' suggesting gay rights would lead to legalized pedophilia, pushing the Obama birther allegation, and calling Eric Holder a 'racist bigot' and Tom Perez a 'racist Latino.' Trump may want 'extreme vetting' of immigrants, but he's rather more lenient with his appointees. On Wednesday, he named Robin Bernstein to be ambassador to the Dominican Republic. Bernstein speaks only 'basic Spanish' (it's so hard to find Americans who speak Spanish), but she does have this — membership at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club."
Lucia Benevides (Open Canada) on Catalonia: "When faced with the question 'Who is Catalan?' rarely do people have a clear answer. The question of identity — especially its implications for citizenship, voting rights, business and residency permits — and questions around integration and belonging are complex. Such dilemmas are present not only in Spain right now, but all throughout Europe. And Catalonia, though its chance of gaining independence in the near future is unlikely, is home to one of the most heated debates on the matter. Some say simply feeling Catalan is enough. Others say those who live and work in Catalonia are Catalan. Yet there are others who consider themselves Catalan, but say self-identification is not enough — at least not in the eyes of others, and especially when your skin isn't white."
Naila Kabeer (Policy Options) on women in the workplace: "Many more women than men remain out of the labour force, many more are unemployed, and, among those who have work, many more are crowded into the lower ranks of the occupational hierarchy. The gender gap in earnings has diminished but at such a slow pace that, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), it will take more than 75 years to achieve equal pay. Of particular relevance to these inequalities within the labour market is a key inequality outside it: women's increasing entry into paid work has not been accompanied by a commensurate change in the gender division of unpaid labour within the home. As a result, working women tend to work longer hours than men, giving rise to the phenomenon of 'time poverty.'"
INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
The Angus Reid Institute has been tracking what Canadians think of the Trans-Pacific Partnership since April 2015. Back then, 41 per cent of Canadians said they were for it, 48 per cent couldn't say or didn't know and 11 per cent opposed it. Now, nearly 60 per cent say they support the trade deal while 12 per cent oppose it (opposition peaked at 21 per cent in September and October of 2015). The percentage who didn't know or couldn't say has decreased to 30 per cent. The numbers are in line with a larger trend that suggests that Canadians want policymakers to stop focusing disproportionately on our southern neighbours and look instead to the Pacific Rim for economic opportunities.
The U.S. has made its final finding on Canadian softwood lumber imports, setting tariffs averaging 20.83 per cent. The decision to uphold the imposition of tariffs comes as a setback for Canadian producers hoping for a breakthrough deal and comes as NAFTA negotiations remain largely deadlocked.
British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed Gavin Williamson as her new defence minister after Michael Fallon resigned following sexual harassment accusations.
Republicans on Capitol Hill unveiled a tax plan that would drastically cut personal income taxes and corporations but would end popular tax breaks. The plan would also increase the U.S. national debt.
And for 11 minutes last night, @realDonaldTrump was no more. Here's what Twitter had to say about the puzzling occurrence: "@realdonaldtrump's account was inadvertently deactivated due to human error by a Twitter employee. The account was down for 11 minutes, and has since been restored. We are continuing to investigate and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again."
Chris Hannay