Avec Luiza Ch. Savage
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THE CANADIAN POLITICS OF NAFTA — The questions Parliament asks the prime minister can tell you a lot, from parties’ priorities and vulnerabilities to preferred attack lines in an upcoming election. We counted the questions from the fall session so far and found: Conservatives don’t like talking NAFTA while New Democrats do, the NAFTA issue that matters the most is dairy, and everyone in Canada loves tying their opponent to the unpopular President Donald Trump.
WHAT SNUB? — Canadian officials denied a U.K. tabloid headline that Trump “snubbed” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by declining a meeting during the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Neither leader asked for a meeting, they said. Trudeau this week is attending events on climate change, education, broad-based economic growth and the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.
COMPETITION CRUNCH — A federally appointed panel on Canadian business competitiveness is set to release its recommendations this morning at an event in Toronto featuring Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains. The report will focus on six sectors deemed to have high growth potential, and comes as the business community eagerly awaits a fall mini-budget intended to respond to steep U.S. corporate tax cuts.
— While NAFTA hangs in the balance, there are no meetings planned yet in New York — either between Trump and Trudeau, or between lead negotiators Chrystia Freeland and Robert Lighthizer. Canadian officials say informal conversations might still happen on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. On Tuesday, Freeland will attend events on the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya and peacekeeping reform, as well as host a meeting for G-7 foreign ministers.
C’EST MARDI — Welcome to POLITICO Pro Canada’s a.m. newsletter. We’re in Toronto for the next few days, so drop us a line and send recommendations for restaurants — and coats: lgardner@politico.com or on Twitter @Gardner_LM and @Alex_Panetta.
THE WALKING DEAD — What should Canada do as the clock ticks down to the Trump administration’s Sept. 30 deadline for a NAFTA text? Absolutely nothing, trade analysts Todd N. Tucker and Timothy Meyer write in POLITICO’s The Agenda today. “The most Trump can do without congressional action would be to produce a kind of strange status quo — what you might call a “Zombie NAFTA,” where the U.S. formally abandons its participation in the pact while U.S. tariff laws remain in place, continuing to provide the original NAFTA trade benefits to Canada and Mexico,” they write. They argue that NAFTA’s rules don’t allow a country to be kicked out of the agreement — only to withdraw voluntarily.
DATA DEEP DIVE — A Canadian official outlined the main tenets of the federal government’s internal data strategy Monday, with the…
