THIRTY-FIRST YEAR, NO. 1697 CANADA’S POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT NEWSPAPER MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 2020 $5.00 Rota to referee 43rd House p. 4 Hill Rose LeMay Climbers p.16 p.41 Michael Susan Harris Riley p. 24 p.12 The many stages of Chrystia Freeland p.15 News Conservative Party Conservative Party a ‘rudderless mess,’ say some Conservatives BY ABBAS RANA “rudderless mess,” and predict the the all-powerful Conservative Fund his offi ce expenses, and some top tive director [Dustin van Vugt] return of Parliament this week will and the party’s national council leadership positions in the OLO has just been unceremoniously ome senior Conservatives are be a major challenge for the Tories. over the fi ring of its executive are still vacant. dispatched,” said Yaroslav Baran, Sdescribing the party’s internal The divisive leadership contest director, the leader is the subject “There is some [chaos] yes, political climate as “chaotic” and a is on, there’s “bad blood” between of an internal audit of $900,000 of because, as you know, the execu- Continued on page 32 News Cabinet priorities News Foreign policy Signs of political Budget, foreign aff airs, and opportunism emerge as MPs on Canada- fi ghting climate change China Relations Committee urge among top cabinet priorities collaboration BY NEIL MOSS & as Parliament returns PETER MAZEREEUW Ps of all political stripes ar- Mgue that the upstart special It's show committee dealing with Canada’s relationship with China is not a Liberal MPs time: Prime place to score political points. Minister Justin Debate over the size of the have been Trudeau, Special Committee on Canada- pictured on China Relations’ subcommittee, asked to hold Jan. 11, and whether there is a desire to 2020, laid consultations see a “consensus” or a “spirit of out a long list collaboration” brought the Jan. of priorities about the 20 fi rst meeting to a crawl. In the for members end, all MPs agreed that Canadi- government’s of his cabinet an Ambassador to China Dominic following the Publications Mail Agreement #40068926 Barton would be called in front priorities in election, and of the committee before Feb. 7. challenges their ridings, A Conservative motion initially on the world called for Mr. Barton to appear on stage will put and report Jan. 27. him to the “I felt a partisan temptation test as well back to cabinet. with the Conservatives with their in the 43rd initial motions in the House,” By Peter Parliament. Bloc Québécois MP Stéphane The Hill Times Bergeron (Montarville, Que.) told Mazereeuw & photograph by The Hill Times last week. “I felt Abbas Rana p.30 Andrew Meade Continued on page 34 2 MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES Canada’s fi shing industry is not dead, but tarians, and that’s a good thing,” Mr. Cullen needs an injection and retention of young told The Hill Times. “I actually think it’s go- Canadians to the docks and vessels. ing to be a really exciting couple of years, The fi sheries, Mr. Williams fi nds, are if not longer.” a vital economic power in a region that Heard on the Hill needs economic revival and new strategies to address the looming demographic crisis in fi shing as baby boomers retire. by Neil Moss Mr. Willaims was a deputy minister to the Nova Scotia premier for policy and priorities from 2009 to 2013. The book was published by Nimbus Publishing at the end of 2019. Fisheries, seas, and Stretching out from ports, Laura Trethewey’s new book looks at the people who decide to challenge one of the world’s globalization: three new last untamed frontiers. In The Imperilled Ocean: Human Stories from a Changing Sea, the ocean journalist looks at how to save the ocean threatened Nathan Cullen was an NDP MP from 2004 to reads to look out for by climate change through looking at those 2019. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade who have spent their lives amongst its waves—a migrant, a cruise ship workers, a Mr. Cullen said he’s excited about his biologist, and others. new role, which he offi cially began on Jan. Ms. Trethewey’s 240-page book comes 10, and is “interested to learn and under- out on Feb. 4. stand the other side of the table.” “By the sea, we live in the moment. We “I’ll obviously be quite prescriptive with feel our fear and happiness for the future the types of clients I work with, because I even more keenly. We cluster into groups want to make sure they always line up with and defend our turf. Across a world of dif- my values,” he added. ferences, the ocean makes us more alike. StrategyCorp has offi ces in Toronto and We might never feel that conscious con- Ottawa, but Mr. Cullen confi rmed that he’ll nection with the sea, but it’s there. For our continue to live and largely work from survival, as well as the ocean’s, it’s time Smithers, B.C. to look past the surface and discover the “I’ll be coming back and forth on occa- connection down below,” she writes in her sion,” said Mr. Cullen, noting plans to come Goose Lane-published book. to the capital in early February. “I should be around maybe more than people want,” he later joked. Rookie baker and former Along with his part-time work for Strat- egyCorp, Mr. Cullen said he’ll be “some MP Nathan Cullen joins other things here in British Columbia,” which he said should be announced in “the Rick Williams's A Future for the Fishery: Crisis and Renewal in Canada’s Neglected Fishing StrategyCorp next little bit.” Industry, left, Jeff Rubin's The Expendables: How the Middle Class Got Screwed by Globalization, On top of spending more time with his middle, and Laura Trethewey's The Imperilled Ocean: Human Stories from a Changing Sea, right. Former NDP MP Nathan Cullen has young children—something which he said Book cover images courtesy of Nimbus Publishing, Random House Canada, and Pegasus Books joined advisory fi rm StrategyCorp as a senior adviser. was previously diffi cult as a West Coast- hree new books on Canada’s struggling measure of the value of all goods and servic- Mr. Cullen represented the riding of based MP—Mr. Cullen said he’ll be busy Tfi shing industry, changing seas, and es produced in the economy. It would be nice Skeena-Bulkley Valley, B.C., in the House baking bread. how globalization has left the middle class to think that living in a country that’s getting from 2004 until 2019. “I just recently discovered a bread- behind are set to hit the shelves. richer means that you’re getting richer too, As a former MP, he’s now subject to a maker that my mum had and wasn’t using, A new book by Canadian economist Jeff but that’s not the way it works anymore.” fi ve-year lobbying ban. In turn, Mr. Cullen so right now as we speak bread is baking, Rubin dives into how the middle class got Mr. Rubin wrote the award-winning Why confi rmed that he won’t be doing any lob- and I’m quite excited about that, too,” said “stuck with the bill” for globalization and how Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Small- bying for the group, but instead has been Mr. Cullen on Jan. 23. “I delivered some to the populist wave of Brexit and the Trump ad- er: Oil and the End of Globalization in 2009. brought on to provide advice to Strategy- some local hereditary chiefs yesterday and ministration will alter established economies. His new 304-page book will come out Corp and its clients “from time to time” on it went over really well—I think I may have In The Expendables: How the Middle in April. It is being published by Random how Parliament works, including the “intri- a future in this.” Class Got Screwed by Globalization, Mr. House Canada. cacies of a minority Parliament,” explained While Mr. Cullen said he’s a bit envious Rubin fi nds that the populist wave was While Mr. Rubin writes about the strug- Mr. Cullen, whose fi rst seven years as an of former colleagues who will be experi- foreseeable starting with the fi rst NAFTA gling middle class, Rick Williams argues MP were spent in a minority Parliament ence the exciting, “shifting” culture of the negotiations when labour unions contend- that Canada needs a renaissance in its fi sh- (three in all; one Liberal, two Conservative). fi rst minority Parliament in eight years, he ed that Canadian and American manufac- ing industry in A Future for the Fishery: “It’s its own animal, the minority Parlia- said he has “no regrets” about his decision turing would end up in Mexico. Crisis and Renewal in Canada’s Neglected ment, and I actually think it’s a time where to not run for re-election. “What we are not told,” writes the former Fishing Industry. the power of the Prime Minister’s Offi ce, “I also feel good with my time served chief economist at CIBC World Markets, “is In his book, which includes a foreword for example, and others, is dissipated a bit; over those 15 years, and I can hold my why we should care about GDP. GDP is a by Donald Savoie, Mr. Williams argues that it’s spread out amongst other Parliamen- head up when I’m walking down Main Street,” he said.