Politics Briefing: Senate more politically important than ever

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Good morning,

The Liberals' second budget got a lukewarm reception in the Senate this week, even though Finance Minister Bill Morneau met with senators for nearly two hours yesterday to try to win them over. ("It didn't convince me," Conservative Senator Raynell Andreychuk said.) This is due, in part, to the changes the Liberal government has made to the Senate: making appointments to the chamber less partisan, making its members more independent and cutting off senators from caucusing with government MPs. We are watching, in real time, a fascinating political experiment play out. Whether this is the new status quo, or just growing pains, remains to be seen. Over in the House, the Liberals have backed down on some of their procedural reforms and are passing fewer bills than their predecessors.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa, with 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. Let us know what you think.

CANADIAN HEADLINES

The Liberal government is saying no to an idea to levy a tax on Internet services to pay for the creation of content. The idea was proposed yesterday by the Heritage committee, which had been studying the issue of the disrupted media industry for more than a year. The government may be open to other suggestions in the report, however, such as tax breaks and support for local news.

(And in an unrelated but interesting story, CBC says it's doing its part to boost the employment of journalists: no one person will fill Peter Mansbridge's shows on The National. Instead, the show will have three hosts when it relaunches in the fall.)

The CRTC, Canada's telecom regulator, will begin banning smartphone "unlocking" fees as of December.

The Immigration and Refugee Board is struggling to keep up with a sharp rise in asylum claims, leading to a backlog that means that applicants could wait up to 11 years for a decision.

Who is Kelly Knight Craft? We've put together a deeply reported profile of the incoming U.S. ambassador to Canada (assuming, of course, she clears her Senate confirmation). She and her husband are billionaire businesspeople, Republican fundraisers and devoted basketball fans.

The federal government has announced the details of a $1.4-billion federal-provincial climate fund to help provinces in their efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. Two provinces will not be allowed to participate for now, however. The Liberal government says Manitoba and Saskatchewan won't get any of the pie until they ink a reductions deal with Ottawa.

In British Columbia, the governing BC Liberals are raising the prospect of a snap election, suggesting the NDP-Green alliance that's set to seize power will be too unstable to last. The Liberals have recalled the legislature next week for a Throne Speech, after which the New Democrats and Greens plan to use their combined majority to defeat the government in a confidence vote. But there are questions about how the legislature will be able to function if the New Democrats are required to put forward a Speaker, who would then be repeatedly called upon to break tie votes. The NDP have said the Liberals have a responsibility to put forward a Speaker to ensure that doesn't happen, but the Liberals' say they're not obliged to prop up the New Democrats.

Vice has a disturbing but important look at an armed anti-Islamic group called the "Three Per Cent" that is operating in Canada.

And a bill passed its final vote in the Senate that you might not have noticed: C-16, which adds "gender identity" as a protected class in discrimination and hate-crime laws. MPs have twice before -- in 2011 and 2013 -- approved similar bills, but both attempts were stymied in the Senate. John Ibbitson writes that the bill is an important marker of Canada's place as a global leader in LGBT rights -- even as many other countries move backwards.

Brenda Cossman and Ido Katri (The Globe and Mail) on the C-16 bill: "But the work of real equality has only just begun. Turning formal rights into substantive protections for trans and gender non-binary individuals will be a hard process, and Bill C-16 provides only the simplest of tools."

Andrew Coyne (National Post) on lack of a national-security review for a Chinese company's bid for a Canadian tech firm: "It's true, as the Chinese government complains, that national security concerns can sometimes be used as a smokescreen for protectionist interests. But national security fears here appear entirely legitimate — enough, certainly, to warrant a proper review and, if necessary, for conditions to be attached to the sale (such as the United Kingdom imposed in a similar case involving Hytera), if not an outright ban. So why the rush?"

Don Martin (CTV) on the slowness of appointments: "There are clear symptoms of internal dysfunction by Liberals failing to get that basic job done."

Tim Harper (Toronto Star) on voters not paying attention … for now: "The good news is that the overwhelming majority of Canadians on a bright spring morning are highly unlikely to delve into any issue that uses Senate and Constitution in the same sentence. But the Liberals walked right into this mess, and it is Justin Trudeau's saving grace that with summer approaching, Canadian politics is not top of mind for voters. It is much like the usual state of mind, except now it's warmer."