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Erin O’Toole says all Conservative MPs who enter the House of Commons will be fully vaccinated, but the Tory Leader won’t say if every member of his caucus has received a vaccine.
The first sitting of Parliament since the federal election is set for Nov. 22
Mr. O’Toole expressed concerns about an all-party Board of Internal Economy committee that decided last week that MPs will need to be fully vaccinated or have a medical exemption to enter the House precinct.
“Only the House of Commons can determine its composition and its conduct,” he said, suggesting it’s up to all members, and not just the committee, to decide on such issues.
It remains unclear exactly how Mr. O’Toole and his Conservatives will deal with the vaccination question. His comments leave open the possibility that some Conservative MPs would remain unvaccinated and not attend in-person sittings, but the Conservative Leader declined to address that possibility directly.
The other parties have come out in support of the vaccination plan.
At today’s news conference, Mr. O’Toole did not disclose how many members of his caucus are unvaccinated, or whether any members are declining to be vaccinated. He and his party have yet to provide such information.
He did not answer a question about what he would tell members of his caucus who are unwilling to be vaccinated.
He said he was opposed to the idea of a virtual Parliament, with members monitoring and contributing to parliamentary business from offsite, and preferred that MPs be present in the House of Commons.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Ian Bailey. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you’re reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
POPE TO VISIT CANADA TO PARTICIPATE IN RECONCILIATION - Bowing to years of pressure from Indigenous groups and Catholics appalled by the residential-schools scandal, Canadian bishops have invited Pope Francis to visit Canada to help with the reconciliation process. In a brief statement, the Vatican said Wednesday that Francis “has indicated his willingness to visit the country on a date to be settled in due course.” Story here.
BANK STEPS UP TIMELINE FOR POSSIBLE INTEREST-RATE HIKES - The Bank of Canada is ending its quantitative easing program and moving forward its timeline for potential interest-rate hikes as it projects inflation to remain elevated well into next year. Story here.
THE NEW CABINET
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named a new cabinet Tuesday, he said he will lead the Liberals into the next election, which would be his fourth as leader of the party. The Liberals, under Mr. Trudeau, won a majority in 2015, but have won minority governments in 2019 and in the election held in September.
DETAILS OF CABINET - Mr. Trudeau put new people in charge of virtually every ministry critical to his government’s agenda on Tuesday, changing the leadership at Defence, Environment, Health, Indigenous Services and Global Affairs. Story here.
BIG PROMOTION FOR JOLY - Mélanie Joly received one of the biggest promotions in Tuesday’s cabinet shuffle, vaulting into the foreign-affairs post as Ottawa grapples with increasing tensions in the Indo-Pacific region and tries to resolve challenges in its relationship with the United States. Story here.
ANAND TAKES COMMAND OF ARMED FORCES - Anita Anand, who became Defence Minister amid this week’s cabinet shuffle, now takes responsibility for a Canadian Armed Forces riven by a sexual-misconduct crisis. Story here.
NEW FACES IN CABINET - Mr. Trudeau has added a number of new faces to his cabinet, including six women and one of the Liberal Party’s two MPs from Alberta. Story here.
INDIGENOUS REACTION - Indigenous leaders reacted positively after changes were announced to two cabinet portfolios focused on Indigenous affairs, and say they’re looking forward to working with the new ministers on reconciliation.
TORY REACTION - Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole tore into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new cabinet lineup, saying he’s assembled a group of “largely inexperienced and ideological individuals” that pose a threat to the country’s national unity and postpandemic economic recovery. From CBC. Story here.
CABINET EXPLAINER - A Globe and Mail explainer on the new cabinet, is available here.
QUEBEC REACTION The Quebec government welcomed the composition of the new Trudeau cabinet Tuesday, saying through a representative that it is pleased that the province has kept its clout and influence in the federal government. From The Montreal Gazette. Story here.
MEANWHILE
HARASSMENT LAWSUIT AGAINST ALBERTA PREMIERS’ OFFICE - CBC is reporting that a former Alberta legislature staff member is suing the office of Premier Jason Kenney, saying she suffered from a toxic workplace culture and was fired as retribution for speaking out about the problems she saw there. Details here.
PRIME MINISTER'S DAY
The Prime Minister chaired the cabinet meeting.
LEADERS
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, in Ottawa, held a news conference on the new cabinet.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole met with his caucus and held a news conference.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, in Ottawa, held a media availability before the NDP caucus meeting to discuss NDP priorities and his plans for the coming COP26 conference in Scotland.
PUBLIC OPINION
A new Angus Reid Institute study finds criticism of provincial governments growing, driven by such factors as declining satisfaction with provincial health care as the weight of the pandemic continues to challenge services. Details here.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on how Jason Kenney keeps picking and losing the wrong fights: “The past few months have brought a series of embarrassments for Mr. Kenney’s government. Each salvo ricochets back at the shooter. The self-inflicted wounds pile up. To criticize these strategic failings is not to oppose the Alberta oil industry or cheer its demise. One can be in favour of a strong and continuing oil business – through an industry that is cleaner and therefore better positioned to compete in the challenging years ahead – while also seeing that Mr. Kenney’s approach has been wholly misguided.”
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Justin Trudeau’s new cabinet signifying the risks he is taking with his legacy: “Two years ago, Justin Trudeau brought environmental activist Steven Guilbeault into his cabinet but didn’t dare make him environment minister. He was too much of an activist, too much of a red flag to the resource industry and business. Now he will steer Canada’s climate-change policy. The Prime Minister wasn’t willing to take that risk before. He is in a hurry to take a few risks now.”
André Picard (The Globe and Mail) on the appointment of a mental-health minister: “One of the few surprises in Tuesday’s unveiling of the new federal cabinet was the appointment of Carolyn Bennett as the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. If nothing else, the symbolism is important. But at a time when mental health is on our minds like never before – thanks largely to the psychological beat-down COVID-19 has delivered, individually and collectively – we need more than symbolism.”
Adam Radwanski (The Globe and Mail) on Justin Trudeau’s cabinet choices putting the oil-and-gas sector on notice: “Mr. Trudeau could have gone further with his new cabinet to ensure a strong climate focus across government. Other ministries that have a piece of that agenda, such as Agriculture, may still need a kick. There is possible cause for concern about Infrastructure, which was given a new focus on climate sustainability and resilience under Catherine McKenna before she declined to seek re-election. The department is now being assigned to the more old-school Dominic LeBlanc. But the fossil fuel sector is the single biggest contributor to Canada’s unusually high per-capita emissions. Financial markets and trade partners are increasingly wary of the industry, and its future in our economy is the biggest open question when it comes to climate transition. The answers won’t come merely from appointing new ministers to deal with it. But Mr. Trudeau appears to have signalled that he’s done dancing around the subject.”
Erin Gee (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how women of colour are routinely overlooked in Justin Trudeau’s cabinets: “And yet, despite the creation of new ministries meant to highlight diversity, efforts within the public service to address unconscious bias, and the Prime Minister himself taking a knee during the aforementioned protests about race, it is clear that women of colour are seen only as a “nice to have” in Mr. Trudeau’s cabinet-making considerations – a box to check, to avoid outside criticism. Women of colour rarely hold positions of power, and when they do, they lack the freedom to botch their files or collect alleged ethics violations in the way male cabinet ministers have, so long as they toe the party line. And Tuesday’s cabinet shuffle shows more of the same: In the Liberals’ new 38-member, gender-balanced cabinet, only four are women of colour, with half of them in lower-profile or tokenizing ministries.”
Don Braid (The Calgary Herald) on a Greenpeace prankster becoming the federal environment minister: “Steven Guilbeault has pulled off his greatest anti-oil stunt. The former Greenpeace activist is now Canada’s minister of environment and climate change. On April 11, 2002, Greenpeace pranksters climbed onto the roof of then-premier Ralph Klein’s bungalow in Lakeview. From inside, Klein’s wife, Colleen, saw vans arrive and people in orange uniforms take a ladder to the house. “I was terrified,” she told an interviewer years later. She thought it was some kind of home invasion. Greenpeace campaigner Guilbeault said: “We’re offering Mr. and Mrs. Klein a gift of solar panels, a gift of the future. That’s what the energy of the future should be about. It will be about solar and wind energy.” Ralph Klein emitted some furious wind power of his own. “Colleen was shook up,” he said. “It was an invasion of privacy . . . Nobody’s home ought to be public property.” Environmental activists thought it was hilarious. Many in the energy industry and beyond were appalled.”
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Ian Bailey