Even before the day’s meetings got started, Justin Trudeau offered up a pre-emptive strike against Andrew Scheer’s demands by announcing that Parliament would be summoned on December 5^th – immediately after his return from the NATO summit – where they would hold both the Speaker election and the Speech from the Throne on the same day (rather unusually, as they tend to be on subsequent days). When Scheer did meet with Trudeau, he came armed with seven demands, and immediately following that, Trudeau met with Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe, who also moaned that his own demands weren’t being capitulated to.

Fun 🤓 fact: There were 46 days between the 2015 federal election and when the 42rd Parliament convened. How many days between the 2019 federal election and when the 43rd Parliament convenes? 46 days. #cdnpoli

— Rachel Aiello (@rachaiello) November 12, 2019

The most detailed readout of a meeting to date by Trudeau’s PMO suggests that maybe – just maybe – someone is waking up to the fact that their silence is being spun. pic.twitter.com/DH1bxOsmUE

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 13, 2019

As for Scheer’s demands, a good many of them are simple non-starters, and others are simply laughable, but let’s walk through them, shall we?

1. Keep Canada united and strong by launching a task force to study the establishment of a national energy corridor, which could bring Ontario and Quebec hydroelectricity to new markets, open up opportunities for Western Canadian oil and gas, and connect rural communities in Atlantic Canada and the North.
2. Help Canadians get ahead by offering broad-based tax relief, providing a date for balancing the budget, and proceeding with fair tax-free maternity benefits.
3. Restore ethics and accountability to government by introducing stronger penalties in the Conflict of Interest Act.
4. Get the energy sector back to work by tabling a detailed plan, with concrete deadlines, to build the Trans Mountain expansion and repealing Bills C-48 and C-69.
5. Take real action on the environment by drawing on policies from our Real Plan to Protect the Environment, such as the Green Patent Credit, the Canadian Clean brand, the Green Home Renovation Tax Credit, and ending raw sewage dumps.
6. Immediately fund regional transit expansion in the GTA, starting with the Ontario Line and Yonge Extension.
7. Reduce the paperwork burden on Quebecers by adopting a single tax return.

To start with, I’m puzzled as to how Scheer believes that his “national energy corridor” scheme is a national unity project. I mean, I get that he keeps insisting it’s “a win-win,” but if you stop and think about it for thirty seconds, they’re demanding that decades be spent on land negotiations and expropriations involving First Nations and provinces that may not be keen on them, for another decade to be spent building a pipeline that, by the time it’s completed, will be in the middle of massive global decarbonization. That’s some forward thinking. The broad-based tax relief that was in the Liberal platform was better targeted to low-income Canadians than in the Conservatives’, as was their proposal for tax-free maternity benefits; the date for a balanced budget is also somewhat mired in mid-nineties thinking, while the government has chosen a different fiscal anchor that allows them to take advantage of the low-interest rate environment to make investments in Canadians. The demand for a detailed plan with concrete deadlines for the TMX construction is farcical because any delays would be contingent upon the Federal Court’s hearing the concerns of those Indigenous groups who are challenging the most recent consultations, and that’s not something the government has any control over, but never mind that there is pipe going in the ground right now. The repeal of C-69 and C-48 are non-starters, and would do absolutely nothing to benefit the energy sector because the problem is the low world price of oil. Demanding that the government adopt the Conservative non-plan for the environment? Hilarious. Immediately funding the GTA transit expansions? How is it responsible to sign a blank cheque when there is no concrete plan on the table? Seriously, you claim to be the fiscally responsible party. And having Quebec adopt a single tax return? Yeah, if Quebec wants that, they can adopt the federal one. They made the choice for the current system. Is rudimentary critical thinking dead in politics?

Good reads:

• The former director of CSIS says that with the US withdrawing from a leadership role that Canada needs to be clear-eyed about Russia and China being adversaries.
• The Irving shipyards have delayed the delivery of the first Arctic off-shore patrol ship until the first quarter of 2020. Look surprised, everyone!
• Thanks to FATCA, nearly a million bank records were sent to the IRS in the US.
• Former GG David Johnston says the Debates Commission is taking criticism to heart and has suggestions for how to restructure debates in the next election.
• Maclean’s compares the electoral results with StatsCan data to get a sense of how the parties resonate within certain regions and demographics.
• Jason Kenney says that the province should unnecessarily risk the pensions of its citizens because other provinces are being mean. Wow. That’s mature.
• Calgary’s Chamber of Commerce is panning Kenney’s “Fair Deal” panel as an idea that will only fuel uncertainty and drive away business investment.
• Suncor striking a deal with Microsoft about things like machine learning in the oil and gas sector is an indication of the changing nature of work in the oil patch.
• Justin Ling makes the salient point that straight pundits continually miss the point about Scheer’s apparent discomfort with queer people.
• Susan Delacourt is seeing signs of restraint from some of the party leaders, especially as they are not engaging in the Don Cherry issue.
• My column delves into why the Reform Act was only going to protect Scheer and not depose him, and why it’s a garbage piece of legislation that needs to die.

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