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Hello,
Justin Trudeau and some of his senior ministers wrapped up their week-long tour of Europe Thursday with a stop in Warsaw, Poland, where the Prime Minister met with U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris.
Ms. Harris said the two would discuss what they can do to “strengthen our assistance in terms of security assistance, humanitarian assistance” for Ukraine.
As Ukraine’s western neighbour, Poland is on the receiving end of a wave of refugees fleeing their home country following Russia’s military invasion.
At a joint press conference with Mr. Trudeau, Polish President Andrzej Duda said 1.5 million refugees have crossed into his country. He later told reporters that he asked the Prime Minister to speed up the immigration process for refugees seeking to come to Canada.
“I told him please, Justin, try to introduce some very, very, very simple procedures,” Mr. Duda said, “simple procedures of visas, etc., to move this process faster, to accelerate it.”
The Globe and Mail’s Marieke Walsh, who is covering the Prime Minister’s trip, filed this report from Warsaw.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
TRUCK CONVOY LEADERS SOUGHT TO OVERTHROW GOVERNMENT, SAYS CANADA’S NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Prime Minster Justin Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser says the invocation of the federal Emergencies Act was necessary to end the trucker protests whose leaders were bent on overthrowing the government.
Jody Thomas, former deputy minister at the Defence department who became Mr. Trudeau’s top national security adviser in January, said the Emergencies Act was meant for an extreme situation like the truck convoy protests. Globe story here.
CHAREST LAUNCHES CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP CAMPAIGN IN CALGARY: Calgary might not appear a natural home for Jean Charest, the former premier of Quebec. But the veteran of both provincial and federal politics, who will formally launch his leadership campaign in the city this week, has a surprising cadre of support in the heartland of Canadian conservatism. Globe story here.
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF INDIGENOUS NAMING: The new Indigenous adviser to the Geographical Names Board of Canada hopes to revitalize Indigenous place names through his position. Globe story here.
PROPOSED CLASS ACTION AT CORRECTIONAL SERVICES: A proposed class-action lawsuit alleges Ottawa was negligent in failing to ensure female employees of Correctional Service Canada could work in an environment free of gender-based harassment, discrimination and assault. Globe story here.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS -The House of Commons is not sitting again until March. 21.
THE DECIBEL – Chief political writer Campbell Clark says “blast from the past” Jean Charest could have a shot at the top job, but likely isn’t the favourite. He discusses who the early favourites are – including Charest, Pierre Poilievre, and Leslyn Lewis – and what this election might reveal about the identity and direction of the Conservative Party.
Here’s an excerpt: “I think it’s going to be a hard slog for him, but he does have a shot, and the shot is probably based on the notion that he can organize Quebec very well – and Atlantic Canada. He doesn’t really have deep connections in the party and [with] party members, but he is well-known in Quebec. There are 78 ridings in Quebec. You get 100 points for every riding in the Conservative leadership race. So in 78 ridings out of 338, he’s probably going to do very well. You add to that the fact that as Progressive Conservative leader, he was pretty popular in Atlantic Canada, and Atlantic Canada is thought to be more PC than hard-right conservative, then maybe he’ll win some ridings there. So the way you win this race is by organizing a riding or a lot of ridings. And since he has a lot of strength in Quebec and Atlantic Canada – and certainly the MPs in the Conservative Party in Quebec are solidly behind him – he has a very good shot at a substantial portion of the party. The trick is when he goes to campaign in parts of Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, in B.C., he’s dealing with people in the Conservative Party that don’t really know him all that well.”
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
In Berlin, the Prime Minister held private meetings and then had a breakfast meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The Prime Minister then departed for Warsaw where he was scheduled to meet with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, then Polish President Andrzej Duda, and then hold a media availability with the president. The Prime Minister was scheduled to tour a temporary refugee shelter with Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, in British Columbia, held a news conference about health care at Eagle Ridge Hospital in the Lower Mainland city of Port Moody, and was then scheduled to hold a roundtable with health-care workers, meet with Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart and hold a community town hall.
OPINION
Elizabeth Renzetti (The Globe and Mail) on the world’s failure to deliver on nuclear disarmament: “It is lunacy that the planet’s future rests on the murky psychology of a handful of men. The American President, for example, has sole launch authority for his country’s nuclear weapons. He may consult advisers, but he does not have to. You may be wondering at this point how you’re ever going to sleep again. The good news is that you’re not alone. The terror that plagued children of the Cold War is back with a vengeance.”
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail) has a message for the Conservative Party – clowntime is over: “With the threat of nuclear armageddon hanging in the air, we are in need of the most surefooted possible political leadership. We need it in government. But we need it also in opposition, in the government–in–waiting.
This Conservative leadership race, then, takes on unusual importance. Opinion will vary on the current Prime Minister’s qualities as a leader, but what is indisputable is that the opposition has a duty to provide the country with an alternative: to elect a leader who could credibly step into the job at any moment and provide as good or better leadership in a crisis.
Given a choice between a candidate whose policies I prefer, but who lacked the requisite qualities of leadership, and a candidate deficient in policy but well supplied in character and judgment, I would unhesitatingly choose the latter. That is the choice that matters in this race: not between right and left, or Blue Tories versus Red, but between adolescence and adulthood.”
Lawrence Martin (The Globe and Mail) on Canada and the Russians: Fifty years of hope go up in smoke: “All that progress with the Russians squandered. It’s been a half-century since the Soviet-Canada hockey series, the landmark clash of Freedom versus Oppression that started us down the road to understanding with the Russians. Headway was made. But it’s gone now – gone in a flash with Vladimir Putin’s subhuman horror show. My bottle of Prince Igor vodka will remain on the shelf. I don’t want to go near it.”
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