Capital Dispatch: House rises, Carney called out for QP record, Trump waffles on CUSMA

Capital Dispatch is a weekly newsletter, sent when Parliament is in session every Friday. To stay on top of what’s happening on the Hill, you can sign up to receive the latest political news and insights directly in your inbox, here.

MPs and senators wrap up, decoding a hot mic moment, and what’s next for MAID?

The spring sitting is over in both chambers, what passed in time, and what didn’t?

What was behind that hot mic moment between U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney? Plus, why it may still be some time before we learn what the Liberals intend to do about expanding medical assistance in dying.

It was a full final week in Ottawa for parliamentarians, here’s what you need to know.

The week that was

Members of Parliament adjourned for their summer break on Thursday after unanimously agreeing to make last-minute progress on a handful of bills.

The Senate followed suit a few hours later. And now with Parliament on pause for two-and-a-half months, several other pieces of legislation proposing to implement various government promises have been left in limbo.

“In the spring sitting we are finishing today, MPs passed 21 government bills in the House in 14 weeks,” Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon said in the foyer Thursday afternoon. Though, MacKinnon’s legislative tally dates back to the start of the 2026 sitting in January, and only focuses on bills that MPs passed, not what has also cleared the second hurdle of the Senate.

For example, the Liberals consider Bill C-22 — the contentious and fast-tracked legislation proposing a new lawful access regime for police — as passed. Except the Senate wrapped up their spring sitting without touching it. That means those measures can’t become law until (or if) senators agree to sign off on them, later this fall.

Among the key bills the government has recently passed are reforms to Canada’s bail and sentencing systems, as well as alterations to how victims of crime and incidents of hate speech are treated by law enforcement. The Senate did pass the spring economic update implementation legislation, while leaving behind a secondary budget implementation bill.

As for what MPs opted to leave behind in the House: the “Safe Social Media Act,” a.k.a. the latest iteration of the Liberals’ online harms bill, and the recently introduced privacy reform legislation, and the “First Nations Clean Water Act.”

The government also wrapped up while a bill to ban goods made with forced labour was left to languish. Asked if he’s concerned not getting that one across the finish line could harm the coming Canada-U.S. trade talks, in light of Trump calling out this country and others for falling short on addressing the issue, MacKinnon said no.

Despite agreeing to wrap up early, the Conservatives were quick to say the Liberals failed to deliver results this spring.

“As MPs finish their work here in Parliament and return to their communities, Canadians ask one question: where are the results? Where are the results from this government that they’ve been promising you for more than 15 months now? Where are the results from this session?” said Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman.

Carney was not in the final question period of the spring sitting. After missing all of this week as he was overseas, he opted instead to jet to Vancouver to catch Team Canada men’s soccer team play — and handily defeat — Qatar at the FIFA World Cup.

Asked if his absence was a concern, or if that sends a message to Canadians that Carney doesn’t feel the need to attend – after missing more than 100 question periods since becoming prime minister – MacKinnon said no, as Canadians in his estimation would expect Carney to attend the match.

Lantsman though, saw it differently, and said she’d put Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s House attendance record against the prime minister’s any day. Poilievre did attend Thursday’s question period, though he was absent earlier in the week.

As mentioned above, Carney was at the G7 in France earlier this week, where a potential peace deal in the Iran war and Russia’s war in Ukraine were front of mind for world leaders.

However, in the absence of a formal bilateral meeting between Trump and Carney it was a hot mic moment between the two men that caught Canadians’ attention.

Between what little audio was picked up, and then later the leaders’ respective recollections it was pieced together that Trump asked Carney about Canada’s deal with China, and the prime minister took that opportunity to explain that when it comes to the number of Chinese electric vehicles this country will allow in, there will be a cap. Carney indicated he thought Trump would like that, and the president agreed.

Asked by the travelling Canadian media to elaborate on this and the several other informal exchanges he had on the sidelines, Carney sought to emphasize there was “no message” to be read into the fact there was no formal meeting, pointing to the “positive” meeting Canada-U.S. Trade Minsiter Dominic LeBlanc and chief negotiator Janice Charette had with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

Of course it was not long before Trump made fresh comments casting aspersions on the trilateral trade pact he not too long ago called the best deal in the world. “We do better without that agreement,” Trump told reporters in France. Canada and recently Mexico have called for a 16-year extension to the agreement. “I would rather not have the agreement but I may sign it,” the president added, when asked, amid being asked if intends to pull the U.S. out of CUSMA.

Gear up for more of this in the days, weeks, and likely months ahead, as it now appears the July 1 CUSMA review deadline could come and go without a concrete resolution. Canada’s Ambassador to the U.S. Mark Wiseman says “it’s all going to be OK,” though.

Not to be missed

‘Indefinitely exclude’ people with mental illness from MAID: report

A joint parliamentary committee of MPs and senators has recommended against expanding medical assistance in dying to those whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness. After extensive study, the panel offered just one recommendation all parties could agree to: “That the Government of Canada amend the Criminal Code to indefinitely exclude persons whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness from eligibility for medical assistance in dying.” There were, of course, a series of other “dissenting” opinions. This report and recommendation comes ahead of a potential MAID expansion next March. The federal government now has to decide whether to legislate the change, and the justice minister isn’t committing to a timeline for making that call, saying it’ll take several weeks for him to comb through the report.

Defence minister not ruling out mixed fighter jet fleet

Defence Minister David McGuinty is not ruling out a mixed fleet for Canada’s fighter jets, as the protracted review into the purchase of American-made F-35s drags on and Sweden’s Saab Gripens remain on the table. “All that’s to be determined,” McGuinty told CTV Power Play host Vassy Kapelos in an interview Monday, when asked whether the federal government has ruled out a combined fleet. In 2023 Canada agreed to purchase F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. company Lockheed Martin, but for more than year as tensions have flared with the Americans, that deal has been under review. Of the total 88 planes agreed to in the initial deal, 16 are currently in production. Saab, meanwhile, has recently been extensively pitching its Gripen fighter jets to the federal government with a promise to produce the planes in Canada and create up to 10,000 manufacturing and research jobs.

30 Canadian players drafted to PWHL

And, I know this is off my usual politics beat but the news that got me through the peak of Parliament Hill’s so-called “silly season” was the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) draft on Wednesday night. After a record-smashing year that saw a Canadian team clinch the Walter Cup for the first time, the PWHL drafted a fresh roster of rookies ahead of its fourth season. And, of the 72 new picks, 30 of them are Canadian. Ahead of the draft, I caught up with six of the more than 120 players from this country that were in contention. And in exciting news, four of them did get the big call. So, big congrats to Hailey MacLeod, Erica Rieder and Emilie Lavoie, who were all drafted by the Montreal Victoire, and Mya Vaslet who is headed to Hamilton. But of course, congrats to all the Canadian players from across the country that are about to start their professional hockey careers. I’ll be cheering you on next season.

Quote of the week

The week ahead

Well, that’s the season! With MPs now off to their ridings for the summer, Capital Dispatch will also be taking a hiatus until the fall sitting starts up at the end of September.

Though, with the Canada-U.S. trade file just about to heat up again, and persistent speculation about when the prime minister may be ready to shuffle his cabinet, there’s a chance I could be back in your inboxes in the months ahead if big news breaks.

Until then, thanks as always for subscribing, or if you’re reading this over the weekend on CTVNews.ca, for clicking to learn more about the goings-on of Parliament Hill. I really love being able to be a piece of your understanding of federal politics and why it matters.

Covering the latest political news from CTV’s parliamentary bureau in Ottawa, Rachel Aiello offers exclusive analysis on political developments straight from Ottawa.