Andrew Scheer took the occasion of caucus day yesterday to give another lap of triumphalism in order to crow about Leona Alleslav’s defection to his party, calling her a symbol of “misplaced trust” by Canadians in Justin Trudeau. And, feeling his oats, he told Trudeau to “bring it on” when it comes to defending a carbon tax in the next election. Now, cheerleading films aside, Scheer may want to be very cautious about his plan to go full-bore on the carbon tax attack, given that those provinces who have decided to fight the plan and have the federal government impose their backstop price instead may find that instead of their citizens benefitting from lower income taxes or provincial rebates, they’ll instead be getting their rebate cheques from the federal government, which is a pretty visceral thing for most people. Add to that, a study coming out next week says that it’s likely that people will be getting more back in those rebate cheques than they paid into carbon taxes because of dividends from industrial emitters being returned to individuals, which could be a blow to the message that Scheer is trying to send about affordability.

In amidst this, Scheer has been trying to press the case for Energy East, demanding that Trudeau bring Trans Canada back to the table in order to discuss reviving the project. The problem, of course, is that there is no economic case for Energy East. At one point, it was seen as a viable route to tidewater with no others in the works, but that changed with the approval of Trans Mountain (err, temporarily delayed right now), and Keystone XL, which Trans Canada also is the proponent of, and there wasn’t enough product to fill both KXL and Energy East, so they focused on the more viable project – KXL. Scheer has also tried to insinuate that Energy East would displace Saudi oil in Eastern Canada, but that’s also not true, given that the whole point was for it to be a pipeline to tidewater. Saudi oil is cheaper to import than for Alberta oil to ship by pipeline, not to mention that there are no upgraders or refineries in the East capable of handling heavy crude from Alberta (again, unlike KXL, where those kinds of refineries line the Gulf coast). The Irvings themselves said that Energy East wouldn’t stop the flow of Saudi oil to Canada, but Scheer is trying to play the economic nationalism card, and is stretching the truth along the way.

Meanwhile, Chantal Hébert warns Scheer that if he plans to make immigration an issue over the coming year, he may want to pay attention to what’s going on in Quebec, where it’s turning out to be something of a poisoned chalice for the CAQ in the provincial election.

Good reads:

• Rumour has it that Chrystia Freeland is getting the Americans to back off of Buy American provisions in NAFTA talks. And she’s not worried about deadlines.
• Karina Gould is signalling that the government will ignore a Commons committee report recommending privacy rules for political parties.
• Gould is also signalling that they will have some kind of organisation in place to organise the leaders’ debates in the next election, but nothing enshrined in law.
• Scott Brison says that testing might begin on new pay systems for civil servants within the next few weeks, thanks to new IT procurement processes.
• Marc Garneau announced that the thin-hulled rail tankers responsible for the Lac Mégantic explosion will be phased out in January, six years earlier than planned.
• It looks like half of irregular border crossers into Canada have some kind legal status in the US – not that status has stopped Trump form threatening them.
• The military is backing down on plans to paint new search and rescue planes “tactical grey,” and will keep their familiar yellow colour.
• News that Her Excellency Julie Payette still hasn’t visited all provinces in her first year is raising questions about her scheduling, and her prioritizing work-life balance.
• Here’s a profile of new Cabinet minister Mary Ng.
• Erin Weir is now demanding an external review of his harassment investigation, citing a lack of due process. Jagmeet Singh refuses.
• The Ontario Court of Appeal granted a stay with the Bill 5 case, meaning that Toronto will go ahead with a 25-seat election next month.
• While the accepted wisdom is that more women run and win at the municipal level than provincially or federally, a new study disproves that notion.
• Kady O’Malley combed through the answers given to written questions on the Order Paper, and pulls out the interesting facts found therein.
• Andrew Coyne writes about how the Court of Appeal decision to stay the Bill 5 ruling shows why using the Notwithstanding Clause was unnecessary.
• Chris Selley says the silver lining in this whole exercise is that it makes it harder for any future government to try and screw with Toronto in the way that Ford did.

Odds and ends:

I was on Canada 2020’s “Explain Like I’m 5” podcast to talk about what is the House of Commons.

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