One hundred years ago today: the ruins of Centre Block

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POLITICS BRIEFING

By Chris Hannay (@channay)

"SEVEN PEOPLE WERE KILLED IN THE OTTAWA FIRE

AN ARREST ON SUSPICION–THE LIBRARY IS SAVED"

That headline blared across the Feb. 5, 1916, edition of The Globe (not yet "...and Mail"), one hundred years ago today, over a picture of the charred skeleton of one of the Parliament buildings.

If you've ever been on a tour of Centre Block you know the story: late one night, as the House was sitting, someone smoking in the reading room on the second floor dropped a lit butt in a pile of newspapers. Someone noticed and alerted a security officer, but it was too late – the blaze quickly tore through the building's wooden walls. Only the Library of Parliament, with its heavy iron doors shut tight, survived.

Samuel Francis (Frank) Glass, an MP for Middlesex East, saw the whole thing happen and assured readers of The Globe that "I am certain that the fire was not caused by enemies, as members are smoking in there all the time." (This was in the midst of the First World War, after all.) Mr. Glass notes there was a five-gallon bottle of mineral water just outside the door of the reading room that could have been used to extinguish the fire just after it started, if only they had thought to use it.

Members of Parliament moved down the road to the Victoria Museum (now the Museum of Nature) for the remainder of the war. It would be four years before MPs would return to a House of Commons on Parliament Hill. This time the walls and floor were made of limestone and marble to make sure another blaze wouldn't break out as quickly again.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS MORNING

> A majority of Canadians polled by Nanos Research for The Globe and Mail said human rights should trump the domestic jobs created by Canada's $15-billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Eighty-seven per cent had a negative or somewhat negative view of the authoritarian Saudi government.

> Steven Chase breaks down the controversial deal, what's at stake for the manufacturer in London, Ont., and why observers are so concerned about the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia.

> The Liberal government will lay out within days its revised role in the mission against Islamic State. Sources tell Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife that the CF-18 fighter jets will be pulled out as Justin Trudeau has pledged, but reconnaissance and refueling aircraft will stay. The number of military trainers will double and Canada will participate in a NATO-led training mission in military camps in Jordan, Turkey and possibly Lebanon.

> Perry Bellegarde, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, says the revelation that an estimated one thousand residential school survivors had their claims denied on a technicality strongly diminishes the historic apology former prime minister Stephen Harper made on behalf of the federal government. "For the government to start doing what they're doing with regard to this administrative split, it does fly against the spirit and the intent of that apology," he said.

> Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says the Liberals are interested in creating a guaranteed minimum income as a way to alleviate poverty in Canada.

> Senator Don Meredith will not face criminal charges after allegations he had a relationship with a woman that began while she was a teenager, the Toronto Star is reporting.

> The CBC is raising concerns with travel claims made to the chair of a crown corporation that promotes Canadian industry abroad.

> And here's how Rona Ambrose, interim leader of the Conservatives, is balancing her party leadership and personal life, with the help of her spouse, a former professional rodeo cowboy. "He has all of the women over to Stornoway [the spouses of MPs]," Ms. Ambrose said. "He takes care of everything that is Stornoway … organizes any kind of reception. He deals with all of the things spouses do and it's wonderful."

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WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT

"You weren't really supposed to know this, but Canada is rapidly drifting away from its greenhouse gas emissions targets – targets that weren't all that ambitious to begin with. It is now clearer than ever that, if the Trudeau government plans to meet those modest targets, it will have to take drastic action in the next four years and be willing to inflict some pain on Canadians." – The Globe and Mail editorial board.

Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail): "The Trudeau government seems to think that the new environmental assessments added to the [National Energy Board]'s study of two pipelines – Energy East and Kinder Morgan – might soften environmentalists' and aboriginals' opposition. Nice try. A bevy of environmental groups praised the government's decision, but quickly insisted they would still oppose the projects." (for subscribers)

Gary Mason (Globe and Mail): "Vancouver is a favourite rendezvous for gatherings of the enlightened; it embodies what many believe the future will look like – bike lanes rivalling roadways, electricity supplied by low-carbon generators. Mr. Trudeau would love to Vancouverize the entire country if he could."

Don Martin (CTV): "We should urge this Boy Scout Speaker to continue his crusade as parliamentary adult supervisor. To make the House of Commons safe for elementary school children to observe without their jaws dropping at the spectacle of it all would represent real and welcome change."

Michael Den Tandt (Postmedia): "The Trudeau Liberals are determined to make no rash decision, to subject every important choice to rigorous critical tests – which is good, surely. But there's a dawning political question: At what point does Solomonic mulling begin to look like dithering?"

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