Hello,
Senator Denise Batters is back in the Conservative national caucus a week after the ouster of former federal Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, who removed her from the caucus for questioning his leadership.
“I’m back,” Ms. Batters told journalists after a Conservative caucus meeting on Wednesday. “It happened just today in national caucus. So I’m so grateful to be back in national caucus. I’m just thrilled – back into my Conservative family.”
In November, Mr. O’Toole announced the removal of Ms. Batters, who is from Saskatchewan and was a close adviser to Andrew Scheer when he was leader, after she launched a petition to call for an early review of Mr. O’Toole’s leadership.
Although Ms. Batters had been removed from national caucus, Conservative MPs from Saskatchewan had voted to confirm her as a member of the provincial regional caucus. She also remained a member of the Conservative caucus in the Senate.
In announcing a petition calling for an early leadership review, Ms. Batters accused Mr. O’Toole of having “watered down and even entirely reversed our policy positions” without party or caucus input.
She also said Mr. O’Toole had “flip-flopped” party policies on such issues as the carbon tax, guns and conscience rights.
In response, Mr. O’Toole said, “I will not tolerate an individual discrediting and showing a clear lack of respect towards the efforts of the entire Conservative caucus … .”
There’s a story here on Ms. Batters making her political move against Mr. O’Toole last November, and a story here on Mr. O’Toole making his move against the senator.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
BREAKING - The Hill-Times newspaper is reporting that another Quebec MP is raising questions about the Liberal government’s handling of the pandemic. This time it’s Yves Robillard, the three-term MP for Marc-Aurèle-Fortin.
AMBASSADOR BRIDGE TARGETED BY PROTESTERS - The Ambassador Bridge is the latest target of protesters opposing pandemic restrictions, cutting off a key trade route between the United States and Canada and threatening supply chains for a significant part of the country. Story here.
QUEBEC LIBERAL BREAKS WITH PARTY ON PANDEMIC - Quebec Liberal MP Joël Lightbound has broken from party policy on the pandemic, saying that the Liberal government should not dismiss concerns about public-health measures or demonize skeptics. Story here.
ABOUT 100 KIDS AMONG OTTAWA PROTESTERS - Roughly 100 children are living in the trucks idling on the streets of downtown Ottawa during the cold, noisy and prolonged protest that has grabbed hold of the capital, police say. Story here. Meanwhile, CTV reports here on how the ongoing downtown trucker demonstration is affecting many residents, especially those who can no longer earn a wage because of businesses having to close.
ALBERTA AND SASKATCHEWAN ENDING COVID-19 MEASURES - Alberta and Saskatchewan have announced plans to end their vaccination passport systems and mask mandates, making them the first provinces to reveal when they would scrap those two coronavirus public-health measures that are spurring protests across the country. Story here.
BUT NOT SO FAST IN B.C. - Premier John Horgan says British Columbia won’t be pushed by “honking horns” to lift the province’s COVID-19 public-health restrictions. After the NDP government delivered a Throne Speech outlining its political agenda for the coming months, Mr. Horgan said he understands people want to put COVID-19 behind them. “But we want to make sure that we don’t do it in a reckless and cavalier manner just because people are honking horns, a small minority are honking horns.” Story here.
SMALLER ONTARIO BUDGETY DEFICIT THAN EXPECTED Ontario’s budget deficit is much smaller than it appeared in government projections just last fall, the province’s independent financial watchdog says in a report that also suggests unexplained revenue shortfalls in the books could be future tax cuts. Story here.
CODERRE GETS A NEW JOB - Three months after losing an election for mayor of Montreal, former federal cabinet minister Denis Coderre is headed back to the private sector. Mr. Coderre is joining water infrastructure management company Groupe Helios as a strategic adviser. Story here from The Montreal Gazette.
THIS AND THAT
The projected order of business at the House of Commons, Feb. 9 is here.
PROTEST STALLS CENTRE-BLOCK RENOS - The trucker convoy protest in Ottawa has stalled the multibillion-dollar renovation of Centre Block on Parliament Hill. (The Politics Briefing newsletter looked at this project in the edition available here.) The Public Services and Procurement Canada department says the construction site has been closed since the onset of the protests, affecting between 350 and 400 workers. “The site remains closed and PSPC is monitoring the situation in close collaboration with the Parliamentary Protective Service, the House of Commons, the Senate of Canada, and the Library of Parliament, and will adjust our activities as needed,” said a statement issued Wednesday by department spokesperson Gabriel Leboeuf.
THE GG AND HER HUSBAND HAVE CONTRACTED COVID-19 - Governor-General Mary Simon and her husband, Whit Fraser, have tested positive for COVID-19. “This morning, I tested positive for COVID-19 and I am currently experiencing mild symptoms. I will continue to self-isolate and will take some time to rest in the coming days,” she tweeted Wednesday afternoon. Earlier, she said her husband had also tested positive.
TRUDEAU ON LIGHTBOUND: Heading into the Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had spoken to Quebec MP Joël Lightbound, “yesterday morning,” capping many conversations with different members of caucus, including the MP for Louis-Hébert. On Tuesday, Mr. Lightbound told an Ottawa news conference that the Liberal government should not dismiss concerns about public-health measures or demonize skeptics. “We’re going to continue to talk,” said Mr. Trudeau.
THE DECIBEL – On Wednesday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, Globe videographer Timothy Moore spoke with reigning ice-dancing bronze medallists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier and one of their coaches, Carol Lane, to learn about how they construct their highly technical rhythm dance routine, what they think about when they are performing and why they decided to wear bright orange spandex on the world stage. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Private meetings. The Prime Minister attended the national caucus meeting and was scheduled to attend Question Period.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh attended the NDP national caucus meeting and was scheduled to attend Question Period.
No schedules released for other party leaders.
OPINION
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail) on how we’ll lift our anti-COVID restrictions when elected governments decide, not street mobs: “Much effort has been spent exhorting the rest of us to understand the grievances of the protesters, as if the protesters all had the same agenda. They don’t. Some are upset, to be sure, by the federal vaccine mandate on cross-border truckers – to which they would have to submit regardless, the United States having imposed a similar requirement. But many more object to any public-health measure of any kind – not just vaccine mandates, but vaccines, masks, the lot. And behind them all are the organizers and leaders of the event, including QAnon-style loons, white-replacement theorists, and former members of the Soldiers of Odin, whose declared objective is to replace the current elected government with a committee made up of themselves, the Governor-General and the Senate.”
Gary Mason (The Globe and Mail) on how truck-convoy supporters like Pierre Poilievre have weaponized ‘freedom’: “Whether Canadians more generally will feel comfortable with Mr. Poilievre’s adoption of language associated with Mr. Trump and the worst elements of the Republican party (Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marjorie Taylor Greene et al) is highly doubtful. Poll after poll has shown little appetite in this country for Mr. Trump’s divisive, anti-media, autocratic style of leadership. It’s also unclear how well Mr. Poilievre’s tactics will go down with moderates within the CPC – Red Tories who don’t have the slightest interest in extending empathy to those associated with the type of disorder we’ve witnessed in the capital for more than 10 days now.”
Robyn Urback (The Globe and Mail) on how the Liberals should listen to their backbencher’s plea to unwind COVID-19 pandemic measures: “Mr. Lightbound, however, is unencumbered by the baggage toted around by Conservative MPs, and he also cannot be dismissed as fringe or reckless by his Liberal colleagues. Indeed, his is a voice in Ottawa that speaks for the Canadians who occupy the space between the extremes – those who believe that COVID-19 is real, that vaccines work, that the pandemic is still ongoing, but that it is time to follow the lead of Norway, Denmark, England, Ireland, France and both red and blue U.S. states and transition to an endemic view of COVID-19.”
Kelly Egan (The Ottawa Citizen) on the issue of billing trucker protesters for their impact on Ottawa: “In a six-hour meeting of Ottawa city council Monday, there was one potentially explosive motion that didn’t get a great deal of attention. The city wants to invoke a clause in the revised Ontario Police Services Act that would allow it to bill protesters for the extra cost of policing. The tally would be enormous: an estimated $800,000 a day (times 12 and counting), plus possibly the cost of hundreds of extra outside personnel (as many as 1,800) now being airlifted into the capital to bring the blockade to a resolution. The grand daily total is estimated in the range of $2.5 million and that doesn’t include about $1 million a day the city is incurring in related municipal costs.”
Ian Bailey