Biden may not be as chummy with Trudeau as Obama was Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Keystone cop. While he was vice president of the United States, Joe Biden helped block the Keystone XL pipeline, which would, if built, carry Alberta's oilsands bitumen to refineries on the American Gulf Coast. Despite Biden and Barack Obama denying approval, Donald Trump signed on, though the project is still mired in lawsuits and protests. On Monday, Politico got the scoop that Biden would withdraw Trump's permit after months of waffling on the subject. Alberta's government cannot be pleased: earlier this year, Premier Jason Kenney pledged $1.1 billion to help the project get off the ground and stimulate the province's economy. Final flight. One of the Snowbirds airplanes, having flown from coast to coast to inspire Canadians across the country, crashed into a house in Kamloops, B.C., on Sunday. Capt. Jenn Casey, a public affairs officer with the Snowbirds, died in the crash; the pilot is recovering in hospital. Locals have set up a memorial outside the Kamloops airport, near where the plane crashed shortly after takeoff. But officials are saying the cause of the crash may not be known for weeks, or even months. Let the trials begin. At his daily press conference on Saturday, Justin Trudeau announced approval for clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine to begin at Dalhousie University. (Read the full text from his speech here.) Sounds good, right? But the director of the Canadian Center for Vaccinology at Dalhousie University, which will be testing the vaccine, told CTV News that under normal circumstances, these types of studies can take "five to seven years." Obviously they're accelerating that, but even the first of three stages will require six months of frequent blood tests from volunteers—and only then can the second stage begin, inviting a broader range of people to receive the vaccine, before a third stage opens testing up to thousands of people with a placebo alternative. Still pledging allegiance to the flag. In an interview with Evan Solomon on Question Period over the weekend, soon-to-be-former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer confirmed he ditched his plans to renounce his U.S. citizenship after losing the 2019 election. Scheer's dual citizenship was the subject of some debate back then, partly because it's unclear what the legal ramifications are of having an American citizen be prime minister, but more so because Scheer and his party members have personally criticized other government officials (former Governor-General Michaëlle Jean , former Liberal leader Stephane Dion) of being dual citizens. A seat at the table. During Trudeau's diplomatic calls this month, he's still reminding world leaders that he really, really, really wants Canada to regain its seat on the UN Security Council. Since April 29, he's talked to 12 world leaders about a global coronavirus response, spinning the pandemic into another reason why Canada, land of international collaboration and acclaimed health care, should best Ireland and Norway for the influential position. Pundits tell the Hill Times that this is standard issue for Canadian prime ministers who want the seat, especially with the upcoming UN vote in June, and that engagement and direct phone calls can actually make a big difference. The Juul in her crown. In 2014, as Canada's health minister, Rona Ambrose advised Canadians not to use e-cigarettes until more studies had been completed. Apparently she's now satisfied with the amount of public information available, because she's joined the board of directors of Juul. The company's CEO said in a statement that she will help Juul "work to earn the trust of our shareholders." This is the path Ambrose chose instead of running for leader of the federal Conservatives, which is a race that's tightening up. In his latest 338Canada column, Philippe J. Fournier breaks down the numbers behind frontrunner Peter MacKay's candidacy. It's not great news for MacKay's camp: while he leads on the first ballot, he lacks second-choice support from the less popular candidates Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan, who are each polling at less than 10 per cent. If their socially conservative supporters flock to Erin O'Toole on the second and third ballots, MacKay could well lose, echoing in some ways the 2017 Tory leadership race, wherein Maxime Bernier notoriously lost to Scheer on the 13th ballot, after the latter consolidated social conservatives throughout the previous dozen rounds of voting. (The odds of MacKay quitting the party and starting his own, say, progressive conservative alternative, however, strike us as unlikely.) A tale of two Morrie-somethings. While MacKay has seen his share of fumbles in the past few months, O'Toole's rise has granted him his own headaches. Last week, Liberal MP Robert Morrissey received an email from O'Toole's campaign thanking him for his endorsement, and offering both O'Toole's campaign and Parliament Hill office to help with the announcement. Only problem: the email was supposed to be sent to Conservative MP Rob Morrison. Candidates aren't allowed to use taxpayer funds (e.g. their Parliament Hill resources) to run a campaign, so this past Saturday, we learned Morrissey is planning to file official complaints against O'Toole to Elections Canada and has raised the issue with the Speaker of the House of Commons. A different leadership race. Over at the federal Green party, leadership candidate Alex Tyrrell, who heads up the Green Party of Quebec, is throwing bombs at outgoing leader Elizabeth May. He claims she's consolidating power even after her impending departure by allowing her husband, John Kidder, to fill a position on the party's federal council. Kidder denied any impropriety to CBC News, saying his role was strictly in governance and had nothing to do with policy. It's worth noting that Tyrrell and May have often clashed over the party's direction in the past, with Tyrrell especially critical of the Greens' federal election results. Tweeting into the void. According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, politicians in Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand are rarely paid attention to on Twitter. The analysis considered 1.3 million tweets from 2,056 politicians in those five countries during the first six months of 2019. Of the Canadian contributors, MPs tweeted a median of 48 times per month, yet attracted a median of just five monthly likes and one retweet. Compare that to the top 25 per cent of most active users of the platform—who produced 65 per cent of everything that's on Twitter—and who swallowed up 80 per cent of all likes and retweets. —Michael Fraiman | 
