May 15 2025

The Roundup: Cabinet firsts. Putin absent. CBC bonuses.

THU MAY 14 2024
David Akin's Roundup
Cabinet firsts. Putin absent. CBC bonuses.
Canada
Carney holds first meeting with new cabinet
Prime Minister Mark Carney and his new cabinet are trying to signal they're quickly getting to work to address Canadians' top issues. Mackenzie Gray looks at how interprovincial trade and tax cuts are being prioritized and why there's some confusion about the federal government's direction on making housing more affordable. [Global National]

Canadians "weren't impressed" by the decision of the UK government to offer Donald Trump an unprecedented second state visit to the UK, the country's prime minister said. Sir Keir Starmer handed the invitation to the US president during a visit to the Oval Office. [Sky News]

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said the government's first priority will be to pass what the Liberals are calling a "middle-class tax cut" by July 1. [Global]

Robertson said his work as housing minister will focus on building up supply of affordable housing in Canada. “We need to be delivering more affordable housing. The Government of Canada has not been building affordable housing since the ’90s and we’ve created a huge shortage across Canada,” he said [Global]

Canadian Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault appeared to contradict Prime Minister Mark Carney's openness to building more pipelines, something western provinces have called for. [Global]

Elections Canada says there was an error on the envelope used to mail a special ballot from Terrebonne, a Quebec riding the Liberals won by a single vote after a recount. [Global]

After a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Belanger said Carney spoke of building “one strong, solid Canada. He knows that being inclusive of Alberta and being inclusive of Saskatchewan is a key component of that strong Canada,” said Belanger, adding that he feels the appointment is part of the prime minister’s efforts to improve Ottawa’s relationship with the West. [Regina Leader Post]

N.W.T. MP Rebecca Alty is now the minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, while Nunavik MP Mandy Gull-Masty is the new minister of Indigenous Services. [CBC]

Mr. Gerretsen was first elected as a Member of Parliament in 2015. He has previously served as Deputy Government House Leader, ... [PMO]
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The Provinces
Danielle Smith fumes over Mark Carney's cabinet choices
Olszewski was named the Liberal candidate for Edmonton Centre after the election writ was dropped. She was shuffled into the riding by the Liberal Party of Canada after former cabinet minister Randy Boissonnault announced he would not stand for re-election. Olszewski, the former chair of the federal Liberal Party’s Alberta wing, had been nominated to run in Edmonton Strathcona, where she likely would have been a sacrificial lamb in a riding that’s a New Democrat stronghold. [Edmonton Journal] 
 L’ex-directeur de la planification stratégique de François Legault, Pascal Mailhot, devient chef de poste du bureau du Québec à Ottawa. [La Presse]
Aurora
Elsewhere
Zelensky accuses Russia of sending 'stand-in props' to peace talks instead of Putin
Ukrainian President Zelensky said he would meet Putin if the Russian president agreed - but Russia confirms Putin won't be there. [BBC]
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping -- which includes Canada -- warned that exports from a region that accounts for around half of world trade will slow sharply this year, and barely grow at all, in the wake of U.S. tariff announcements. [Reuters]
Media
CBC to stop paying individual bonuses to employees after controversy
The move comes after the Canadian public broadcaster was criticized for paying out millions in bonuses after eliminating hundreds of jobs. [Global]

Nearly 200 officials from public radio stations across the country are descending on Capitol Hill to seek to convince lawmakers to maintain funding for public broadcasting despite President Trump's campaign against it. [NPR]
A.G. Sulzberger: ... the free press is a load-bearing pillar in a free society. In the words of President Ronald Reagan, “There is no more essential ingredient than a free, strong and independent press to our continued success in what the founding fathers called our ‘noble experiment’ in self-government.” A subservient press, meanwhile, makes it easier for leaders to keep secrets, to rewrite reality, to undermine political rivals, to put self-interest above public interest and ultimately to consolidate and cement their power. In the words of the political director for Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister often cited as a model for President Trump: “Whoever controls a country’s media controls that country’s mind-set and, through that, the country itself.” [NYT] (🎁 link)
Science and Technology

Similar commands have been available for years with Siri, Google, Alexa, and even Microsoft’s now-departed Cortana assistant that Copilot has replaced. But it is a new addition for Copilot, if a dedicated key or combination of keys wasn’t making it easy enough to get into the app, and arrives following the launch of a more conversational Copilot Voice experience. [The Verge]
The Calendar
There are no events on the Parliamentary Press Gallery's calendar today so I thought I'd use this space to explain how content in this section is normally acquired.

Most events listed are from media advisories distributed to the Parliamentary Press Gallery (of which I've been a member for 20 years). The Press Gallery provides information here to those who wish to distribute material to all 300+ Gallery members. Once the work of House of Commons committees gets underway, you will see those events here as well, information taken from the House's "Notices of Meetings" page. 

As I monitor the social feeds of as many Parliamentarians as I can, I will occasionally see an event listed on those feeds and will publish that here. This has been a frequent source of discovering what Conservative MPs, including the leader are doing, as members of that Party rarely provide day-ahead notice of their activities through the Press Gallery. 

As for PM Carney, he has discontinued the practice established by his predecessor of providing a daily itinerary and now only provides media advance notice of a limited number of events. 
Issued this day ...
… in 2009. Sc 2330i se-tenant pair. Canadian Horses. Design Wilco Design (Bonnie Yam) 

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