Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes part in the National Prayer Breakfast in Ottawa on Thursday, May 19, 2016.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
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POLITICS BRIEFING
By Chris Hannay (@channay)
It wasn't exactly the most talked-about video of the Prime Minister that came out last night (we'll get to the other one in a minute), but in case you missed it, Justin Trudeau defended Canada's acceptance of thousands of Syrian refugees on The Daily Show. The Prime Minister also joked with comedian Hasan Minhaj about hockey and Nickleback.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW IN OTTAWA
> Mr. Trudeau had to give one apology more than he expected yesterday after a confrontation on the floor of the House. Tensions have been high for days because of some procedural shenanigans, and when Conservative MP Gord Brown could not return to his seat for a vote, a visibly annoyed Mr. Trudeau pushed through a crowd of MPs and grabbed Mr. Brown by the arm to take him back to his seat. In the process, Mr. Trudeau elbowed a New Democrat in the chest. It wasn't the Shawinigan handshake, but that didn't stop numerous commentators from declaring it the end of "sunny ways" in Ottawa. And to think, earlier in the day we joked about how polite Canadian politics was.
> Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion is headed to Saudi Arabia, where he says he will raise concerns with the country's human rights. Mr. Dion continues to defend the $15-billion arms deal Canada has made with the Saudis.
> Which woman will appear on one of Canada's banknotes? Nellie McClung is the choice of respondents in at least one survey.
> And the National Energy Board asked TransCanada to file a new application for the Energy East pipeline, after the original was deemed "difficult even for experts to navigate." TransCanada has responded by refiling an easy-to-read 39,000 pages.
REGIONAL ROUNDUP
> Ontario: Do political donations influence policy decisions? Politicians always say no, but a major analysis by Radio-Canada found money ebbed and flowed to political parties in ways that weren't quite like the tides.
> Prince Edward Island: An Irving-owned company has made big donations to PEI's main parties while lobbying the government to make a major agriculture decision.
WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
Campbell Clark (Globe and Mail): "But that was the arcane world of procedure. Mr. Trudeau's irritated, petty grab into a crowd of MPs will be seen across the country. What many Canadians had embraced about this Prime Minister was the change of tone he brought to politics, and to government. The tone shifted in a moment on Wednesday, and that is likely to be a lingering problem for Mr. Trudeau." (for subscribers)
Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail): "Green technologies in this age of concern about climate change are great, up to a point. 'Social licence,' that most elastic and political of phrases, doesn't always come easily for certain of those technologies. 'Social licence' certainly isn't accorded in most of Canada (except Ontario) to an energy source – nuclear power – that is among the best at curbing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change." (for subscribers)
Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail): "Stéphane Dion has barraged Canadians with more than his share of whoppers in his short time as Foreign Affairs Minister in the Trudeau government. It's one thing to triangulate to avoid offending Russia or Saudi Arabia; it's quite another to brag about it as emblematic of a new era of engagement and 'responsible conviction' that had been sadly lacking under the Tories."
Chantal Hébert (Toronto Star): "For the better part of a week, the minister in charge of fulfilling Justin Trudeau's promise of a new voting system in time for the 2019 election has failed to offer any concrete evidence that her government has an agenda other than having its own way with the electoral process."
Terry Glavin (National Post): "Whatever it is, six months into his term, Prime Minister Trudeau still seems to be satisfying a strange need among Canadians to imagine that this country is bounding by leaps and strides towards some sunnier, happier, utopian horizon."
Carissima Mathen (Ottawa Citizen): "The appointment process developed for the Supreme Court in the 19th century may well be unsuited to it today. Until Canada's Constitution is changed, though, concerns about that unsuitability should be directed at executive actors. The involvement of individual nominees is an unhelpful distraction."
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