Politics Briefing newsletter: Trudeau heads to Europe

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Good morning,

As CBC's Story Of Us demonstrated, Canadians are very sensitive to portrayals of their role in history. But the Canadian Museum of History is confident that they've got it covered. The museum, just across the Ottawa River from the Parliament buildings, is opening a major new exhibit this year: the Canadian History Hall, a one-million-square-foot installation that covers what's happened over 13,000 years on this piece of land we now call Canada. The media get a sneak peek today (we wrote about the exhibit here) and it opens to the general public on July 1.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa and Mayaz Alam in Toronto, 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

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau departs for Europe today, ahead of tomorrow's NATO meeting. In the wake of the Manchester bombing, security and anti-terror measures are expected to rise to the top of the agenda. Canadian officials say they hope to use the gathering, and the G7 meeting in the following days, to get closer to U.S. President Trump.

The Trudeau Liberals will launch a key component of their innovation agenda today. The government hopes its initiative, which will pump $950-million into as many as five superclusters of companies, will create more well-paid jobs in high-growth industries such as advanced manufacturing, digital technology and biotechnology.

With NAFTA renegotiations looming, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland was in Mexico City yesterday for a day-long conference focused on Mexico's role in the North American partnership. Some Canadian business leaders have stressed that if the Mexico-U.S. portion of the negotiations get drawn out that Canada should seek a separate deal with the U.S., but Ms. Freeland assured Mexican officials that Canada sees prospective NAFTA talks as a three-way negotiation.

Correctional Services Canada is looking to establish new guidelines on solitary confinement that would disallow placing vulnerable inmates into segregation. There are 15 proposed changes that were outlined in documents circulated among shareholders, which were obtained by The Globe, including barring pregnant, physically disabled and terminally ill inmates from being put into solitary confinement. There hasn't been a legislative effort to overhaul Canada's handling of solitary confinement despite  the Trudeau Liberals promising to do so shortly after being elected in 2015.

The Ottawa Citizen dives into the bizarre world of bidding for federal fitness contracts.

The Senate's book for children is getting a minor rewrite.

And in British Columbia, the Opposition NDP have taken the lead in a crucial race as the final ballots are counted for the May 9 election, but it's still too close to call. The outcome of the Vancouver Island riding of Courtenay-Comox could return the BC Liberals to majority status, if they steal it from the NDP, or ensure the legislature remains a minority with the Greens holding the balance of power. On election night, the NDP was ahead by nine votes. The riding has since flipped between the parties as absentee ballots are added, but late yesterday afternoon, the NDP jumped ahead with a 101-vote lead. There are still almost a thousand ballots to come, so it's too early to say what the end result will be, but we'll know soon: Elections BC has to finish its count by the end of today.

Rita Trichur (Report on Business Magazine) on our feminist prime minister: "It's high time for our feminist Prime Minister to walk the talk. Trudeau told the United Nations that he'll continue calling himself a 'feminist until it is met with a shrug.' Thus far, his policies aimed at helping women ought to elicit just that." (for subscribers)

Nik Nanos (The Globe and Mail) on whether sunny ways will get cloudy soon: "If the Conservatives and the New Democrats do a good job of transitioning to new leaders, you can expect an incremental shift in opinion. If at the same time the Liberals make mistakes, then you can expect the velocity of change in opinion to quicken."

The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on solitary confinement: "[Correctional Service Canada's] proposals are a self-serving exercise in avoiding the real issues raised by its own chronic misuse of solitary confinement. If that's the best the agency can do, Ottawa should follow Ontario's lead, and draft legislation to get the job done."

Father Raymond J. de Soza (National Post) on public funds for sports: "Herewith, I put forward a proposal for the city of Calgary, my hometown. If a new hockey arena — paid for by public funds and owners' 'donations' — is really a public works project, let it be for the public. Stipulate that a certain number of tickets per event — let's say a thousand, or even 500 (including some of the good seats) — are the city's to distribute for free. They could be given out by lottery, or targeted toward worthy citizens who serve the community, or to those who otherwise could not afford to use this bit of public infrastructure. Undoubtedly, owners who are moved by a spirit of philanthropy to donate to their own buildings would smile upon this wider spirit of sharing?"

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INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES

British Prime Minister Theresa May has upgraded the U.K. to its highest threat level following the deadly Manchester attack, meaning that another attack may be imminent. Police said they may not have a full list of those who died until late Wednesday at the earliest, but four people have been identified: 18-year-old Georgina Callander, 15-year-old Olivia Campbell, 26-year-old John Atkinson and 8-year-old Saffie Roussos. A portrait of the suspect in the suicide bombing has emerged. Salman Abedi, a Briton whose parents immigrated from Libya, is the latest second-generation citizen to turn to extremism. Security experts say that second-generation citizens, because of their feeling of cultural dislocation, are particularly vulnerable to propaganda that radicalizes individuals.

Former CIA director John Brennan told members of Congress yesterday that he was worried that members of Mr. Trump's campaign team had successfully been recruited by Russia in order to aid in the Kremlin's attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. election. Mr. Brennan, who stepped down from his role after Mr. Trump's inauguration, said that he was concerned "by a number of the contacts that the Russians had with U.S. persons."

As a candidate, Mr. Trump promised that he would preserve funding for widely popular programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. At the time, the proposals represented a break from Republican orthodoxy -- many of his competitors wanted to reform America's social safety net by cutting coverage and slashing spending. But now, the White House's budget proposal shows that he has broken that promise. Republicans on Capitol Hill are expected to reject Mr. Trump's budget as they craft their own spending bill but will almost certainly choose to snip the safety net.

And in Brazil, President Michel Temer is being roiled by allegations of corruption. Citizens are calling on him to resign but so far he has refused to step down, even after one aide was arrested and another handed over a bag of cash to the police. The country's political system is notorious for having systemic issues of corruption — former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is in the news as well and is facing new charges.

John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on NATO and the western alliance: "One way or another, Mr. Trump will eventually leave the White House. America will be back. Mr. Trudeau and other Western leaders must hold things together until it returns."

Doug Saunders (The Globe and Mail) on the Manchester attack: "Even at a time when terror attacks on civilians have once again become part of European life, there was something different about Monday's Manchester attack. It marked a new threshold of terrorism, and is likely to change British life in important ways."

Elizabeth Renzetti (The Globe and Mail) on the Manchester attack: "Terror attacks on children and young people are a perversion, a way to attract even more attention in a numbed landscape, which must be the reason they are deployed so often around the world. Not only in concert halls in Manchester and Paris, but in schools and fairgrounds in Pakistan and in marketplaces in Nigeria, where Boko Haram turns children into suicide bombers."

Beisan Zubi (Ottawa Citizen) on teenagers' strength after the Manchester attack: "Watch how they respond to this tragedy exacted upon them and their community with grace and compassion and use it as an opportunity to learn how to respect them and their culture, and not treat them with the same derision we usually heap on them."

Lucy Easthope (The Guardian), an emergency planner, on the Manchester attack: "I was wrong to insist in my training that the first message should be 'we will overcome' as if the enemy was on the beaches and weakness would be letting someone or something win. Yesterday I realised that the fight rhetoric has gone too far and instead what we need to do is to admit how much this hurts."