With some adjustments to the pomp and ceremony to accommodate Parliament’s new dual-building status, the Speech from the Throne went ahead yesterday, and the speech itself was not all that exciting. There was a big focus on the environment and climate change, a whole section on reconciliation with Indigenous people, and this government’s watch words of “middle class prosperity,” and the government sprinkled just enough hints that could mollify the other opposition parties if they were looking for something to justify their support, though both Andrew Scheer and Jagmeet Singh came out to puff their chests out and declare that they weren’t happy with what was in the speech.

More concerning was the fact that the Governor General herself contributed to writing the speech, which is unusual, and dare I say a problem. Her role is to read the speech on behalf of the government, and there are centuries of parliamentary evolution as to why this is the case, but her having an active hand in writing the speech – even if it’s the introduction (and in particular the notions of everyone being in the same space-time continuum on our planetary spaceship), it’s highly irregular and problematic because it means that Payette is once again overreaching as to what her role in things actually is, and that she’s unhappy with it being ceremonial (a failure of this government doing their due diligence in appointing her when she is not suited to the task). While one of my fellow journalists speculated that this may have been what was offered in exchange for her having to read a prepared speech (something she does not like to do), it’s still a problem with lines being crossed.

The PMO-penned part of the speech starts with the line, "This fall, Canadians went to the polls. And they returned a minority Parliament to Ottawa. This is the will of the people, and you have been chosen to act on it."

— J.P. Tasker (@JPTasker) December 5, 2019

Highly unusual preamble to the SFT which appears to be written by the GG herself – up to 500 words. In no other province is this the case. GsG used to restrict their remarks to notes about Royal Tours, State Visits and Canadian Honours. Not quite sure why this was included. https://t.co/X9nW5g7uSU

— Richard Berthelsen (@rberthelsen) December 5, 2019

And then there was the reporting afterward. When Andrew Scheer said that he was going to propose an amendment to the Speech during debate, Power & Politics in particular ran with it as though this was novel or unusual, and kept hammering on the fact that Scheer is going to propose an amendment! The problem? Amendments are how Speech from the Throne debates actually work. It’s part of the rules that over the course of the debate, the Official Opposition will move an amendment (usually something to effect of “delete everything after this point and let’s call this government garbage”) to the Address in Reply to the Speech, and the third party will propose their own sub-amendment, and most of the time, they all get voted on, and the government carries the day – because no government is going to fall on the Throne Speech. There is nothing novel or special about this, and yet “Ooh, he’s going to move an amendment!” Get. A. Grip.

And now, the hot takes on the Speech, starting with Heather Scoffield, who calls out that the Speech neglected anything around economic growth. Susan Delacourt makes note of how inward-focused this Speech is compared to its predecessor. Chris Selley lays out some of Trudeau’s improbable tasks in the Speech, as well as the one outside of it which is to play a supporting role to Freeland and her task at hand. Paul Wells clocks the vagueness in the Speech, but also the fact that they are setting up for games of political chicken in the months and years ahead.

Good reads:

• In a bit of a surprise result, Liberal MP Anthony Rota ousted Geoff Regan as the new Speaker of the House of Commons. Rota was previously a deputy Speaker.
• The government is setting aside an extra $50 million as part of the settlement for an RCMP class-action lawsuit from victims of harassment.
• The Federal Court has denied an atheist group’s attempt to get charitable status as a “church.”
• The new Chinese Ambassador to Canada is warning against a proposed Senate motion to call for Magnitsky Act sanctions against Chinese officials.
• Here’s a look at how Jason Kenney is using anger at Ottawa as his distraction while he nationalizes pension plans with an eye to using them to invest in the oil sector.
• There is talk that the federal government could accept Alberta’s proposed heavy emitter carbon price scheme (but will still impose the carbon price on consumers).
• Chantal Hébert lists the various court challenges to the government’s environmental agenda.
• Kevin Carmichael walks us through recent StatsCan data and the Bank of Canada’s Economic Progress Report, and what they say about our economic resilience.
• Robert Hiltz foresees Scheer’s inevitable demise as party leader.

Odds and ends:

Need a copy of my book #UnbrokenMachine, or want to give it to someone as a gift? Get it 30% off until December 15 when you order directly from the publisher. https://t.co/AjSQtq0hwz

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) December 3, 2019

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.