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Justin Trudeau’s cabinet ministers have their priorities laid out for them.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

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POLITICS NOTEBOOK

By Chris Hannay (@channay)

It's been more than four months, and the only activity on the floor of the House of Commons has been workers installing 30 new seats.

So when are we going to see, for the first time, Justin Trudeau face attacks from an as-yet-undecided interim Conservative leader in Question Period?

The problem is the timeline.

Usually it works like this: A party wins an election, spends a couple of weeks getting ready to govern, a cabinet is sworn in, and Parliament is recalled shortly after so the Governor-General can read the Speech from the Throne and introduce the new government's legislative agenda.

But, likely before the Throne Speech can happen, Mr. Trudeau has an unusually busy calendar of international obligations to attend to.

On Monday afternoon, the incoming prime minister officially confirmed he'll be attending four meetings this month: a summit with the leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) countries in Turkey on November 15 and 16; a meeting of the leaders of the Asian-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) in the Philippines on November 18 and 19; a gathering of the heads of government of Commonwealth countries in Malta on November 27 to 29; and, possibly the highest profile, the United Nations climate change conference in Paris, France, that runs November 30 to December 11.

The meetings will give Mr. Trudeau a chance to debut on the world stage and meet his international counterparts, while working on important economic, trade and environmental files.

But the clock is ticking. There's not a lot of time to reconvene Parliament before the winter break: it's currently set to sit no later than Dec. 11, and not come back until Jan. 25.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS MORNING 

> Tens of thousands of residential school records will be released to the public for the first time this week.

> The incoming Liberal government says it's standing by its opposition to allowing jets at Toronto's Billy Bishop airport, which could end up hurting Montreal aircraft maker Bombardier.

> (For subscribers) Speaking of Bombardier, analysts say there will be bad news for shareholders if the federal government doesn't add to the province's bailout.

> Quebeckers will be well-represented in Mr. Trudeau's cabinet.

> As part of the transition to government, the Liberals have to quickly hire hundreds of new staffers. The party put out a call for applications last week and received more than 11,000 submissions.

> The NDP posted its most successful fundraising quarter ever from July to September this year, backing up poll numbers that showed high support for the party in the early part of the campaign.

HIGH PROFILE PORTFOLIOS

Settling refugees, withdrawing CF-18s, rewriting assisted suicide legislation -- all of these are immediately important files, Campbell Clark writes for subscribers, which will put extra pressure on a few high-profile cabinet picks this week.

WHAT'S GOING ON THIS WEEK

Justin Trudeau and his cabinet ministers will be sworn-in by the Governor-General at Rideau Hall on Wednesday.

The Conservative caucus, including Stephen Harper, will meet on Thursday for a post-mortem of the campaign and to select an interim leader.

WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT

"Clearly, the fact that 54 Afghanistan veterans – and that number is undoubtedly higher – killed themselves, compared with 158 killed in action, is troubling for the government. It would prefer to minimize the suicides. But there is a consequence to that. By not being upfront about it, the generals and bureaucrats have created a culture that has added to the stigma of PTSD."

The Globe editorial board on suicides in the military.

André Picard (Globe and Mail): "While we can prevent and treat many visible physical injuries, what about the oft-invisible mental harms?"


Lawrence Martin (Globe and Mail): "In whatever economic portfolio, we can count on [Scott Brison] to stir the pot."

Scaachi Koul (BuzzFeed): "The more I'm put in positions where I have to defend my existence, the more I wonder why it's on me to defend my existence."


Tasha Kheiriddin (iPolitics): "Whoever gets [the interim leadership of the Conservatives] will be front and center not only in QP, but in the party's process of redevelopment, rebranding and soul-searching. "

This newsletter is produced by Chris Hannay and Steve Proceviat.

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