Politics Briefing: What all the parties could agree on this year

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Good morning,

It's been a long year. Before the Politics Briefing goes on hiatus for the holidays, we thought we'd highlight some of the positive stories from 2017 that make us hopeful for the new year. Got any suggestions? Let us know.

Parliament is based on an adversarial relationship between a government that proposes and an opposition that opposes. But not every measure is a worthy of a Question Period duel, and sometimes the parties in the House of Commons do, in fact, find common ground on issues. Here are a few of the bills and motions that garnered support from all parties this year.

The House unanimously approved of a free-trade agreement with Ukraine and endorsed the Paris agreement on climate change. (Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant was the only one to disapprove of the latter.)

MPs ignored Vladimir Putin's warnings and passed a bill that allowed for economic sanctions against human-rights abusers in Russia, Venezuela and South Sudan.

Criminal punishments are now more severe for those who take part in hate-motivated vandalism and mischief.

All parties agreed to a bill to offer more protection to journalists and their confidential sources, after some troubling police actions in Quebec.

Judges will be required to undergo more training to deal with sexual assault cases (if the bill manages to get going again in the Senate).

On symbolic measures, MPs from all parties called for: Charlottetown to be considered the "birthplace of Confederation"; June 19 to be National Sickle Cell Awareness Day; June 10 to be Portugal Day and the month of June to be Portuguese Heritage Month; the month of June to also be Italian Heritage Month; and the fourth week of September to be Gender Equality Week.

And, finally, MPs voted unanimously on Oct. 18 to declare "That, in the opinion of the House, the government should recognize that the ongoing contribution of ranchers and farmers as stewards of the land and conservationists is part of our history, proudly shared by all Canadians, and should consider establishing policies which would support and encourage the development of private farm and ranch land conservation and restoration projects."

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa, Mayaz Alam in Toronto and 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. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.

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TODAY'S HEADLINES

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in Ottawa today, where he is expected to talk to Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland about North Korea, among other things.

Meanwhile in Tokyo, Japan says it's pressing ahead with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, with or without Canada.

Three Conservative MPs who ran for the party leadership and lost – Kellie Leitch, Brad Trost and Deepak Obhrai – may have nomination fights ahead of them.

Is Jagmeet Singh getting married?

Is Thomas Mulcair stepping down?

Will the Liberals restore door-to-door mail delivery?

Why the government may finally move to fund more basic research.

When recreational marijuana is legal next year, the going price may not be low enough to compete with the black market. Federal and provincial finance ministers have said they're aiming for a price of $10 per gram, including taxes, while also noting the price needs to be competitive to steer people away from street dealers. But new figures from Statistics Canada suggest black-market prices in 2015 were $7.14 and $8.84 per gram.

Public-health officials say more than 4,000 people are expected to die this year from drug overdoses — as federal and provincial interventions have failed to stem the crisis. The Public Health Agency of Canada says fatal overdoses have increased by 40 per cent, compared with last year. Fentanyl is now involved with three-quarters of those deaths.

B.C. is banning the grizzly-bear hunt — joining Alberta, which banned the practice more than a decade ago. The NDP government says no one will be permitted to kill grizzly bears except for First Nations hunters, who will be able to hunt for food, social or ceremonial reasons. In August, the B.C. government ended trophy hunting but still permitted hunting for food.

Saskatchewan's Brad Wall and B.C.'s John Horgan are the most popular premiers in Canada, according to the Angus Reid Institute.

And Warren Shepell — of Morneau Shepell, a company he says he has had surprisingly little to do with —  says he wishes people wouldn't bring up his name so much.

Globe and Mail editorial board on Liberal tax changes: "The basic thrust of what Mr. Morneau was originally aiming at – tightening up the rules around income sprinkling, large passive investment portfolios held inside small business corporations, and conversion of dividends into capital gains – was sound. Critics were right that some of the details needed to be polished and tweaked, to avoid imposing confusion and big new compliance costs on taxpayers. But the gist of what the Finance Minister was trying to do, namely removing opportunities to abuse the system, made sense."

Keith Martell and Adam Spence (The Globe and Mail) on First Nations poverty: "If Canada's current efforts at reconciliation with its First Nations are to bear fruit over the long term, creating a financial system that works for Indigenous populations must be a priority."

Stephen Maher (Maclean's) on legalizing marijuana: "It seems absurd that the Emerys, who have spent years fighting the unjust laws against marijuana, in and out of prison, can't now sell the product, while [Julian] Fantino, who once compared marijuana to murder, is going to cash in."

Rob Breakenridge (Calgary Herald) on interprovincial trade barriers: "Let's show that the New West Partnership is an actual functioning trade agreement, and how a similar approach can and should be applied right across the country. Fortunately, we're moving in that direction, with the recently signed Canada Free Trade Agreement and a potentially huge ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada in a case involving interprovincial liquor restrictions."