Why not copy Justin Trudeau? Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Magical thinking won’t solve Erin O'Toole's climate problem: Jean Chrétien hated the GST before he decided not to eliminate the sales tax. Justin Trudeau beefed up Stephen Harper's child-care benefit. Now, as Erin O'Toole tries to formulate a winning strategy to combat climate change, Paul Wells envisions a future in which O'Toole takes a similar tack: He would promise to implement the Liberal plan to implement a federal carbon tax in provinces that refuse to run their own carbon-pricing scheme. He’d sweeten the federal rebates that already protect most consumers from the cost of the carbon price. Increasing the rebate would allow O’Toole to claim he meant it when he said he’d have a distinctive policy that protected individual consumers. He might tinker with other details, but the gist of it would be that there’d be no meaningful distinction between the Liberals and Conservatives on climate policy. Supriya Sharma is becoming a familiar face to any Canadian who wants to know the latest on vaccine safety. Yesterday, Health Canada's chief medical advisor offered an update on the AstraZeneca vaccine after federal regulators thoroughly reviewed reports of blood clots. Sharma said those "very rare" adverse events "may be linked to use of the vaccine." But the vaccine is safe, she said, and the benefits far outweigh the risks. The folly of China's claims: Shannon Gormley needles the Chinese government for its assertion that Canada's decision to slap sanctions on a handful of Chinese officials in light of human-rights abuses in that country, including what the House of Commons has labelled a genocide in Xinjian province, somehow violated China's sovereignty: Canada and its allies are not infringing upon China’s ability to govern itself; they have merely suggested they dislike the genocide, and dislike it enough that they will sanction a very small number of people involved in it. To take a position on an international matter, and to act on it within one’s own remit, is not to violate another country’s sovereignty—it is to assert one’s own. In the most recent issue of Maclean's, Michael Fraiman annotated a photo of a phalanx of international diplomats who stood up for Michael Kovrig outside the Beijing courthouse where he stood trial. Last weekend, a Politico scoop claimed Ottawa threatened to withhold funding of the annual Halifax International Security Forum if that organization gave Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen a prestigious John McCain Prize for Leadership in Public Service. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan denied the story. Yesterday, the House of Commons unanimously passed a motion to maintain the forum's funding if Tsai is named this year's recipient. (Former) Liberal turmoil: CBC News broke the story that one of independent MP Yasmin Ratansi's ex-staffers is suing the parliamentarian for $2 million. Alim Lila, a former constituency assistant, says Ratansi "verbally abused him on multiple occasions, made a derogatory remark about his girlfriend and fired him for attending an abortion in 2017." Ratansi, who left the Liberal caucus last year after violating parliamentary employment rules, denies the allegations. Clearing the backlog: The Commons health committee published seven reports before the last election that never elicited a government response. Last month, NDP MP Don Davies moved a motion to readopt those reports and re-up the request for formal responses. On Tuesday, the committee made that ask for its work on a national diabetes strategy, sports-related concussions, methamphetamine abuse, youth fitness, LGBTQ health and violence facing health-care workers. Zero dissent: The Commons environment committee tabled a lengthy report on zero-emission vehicles this week. Those parliamentarians achieved what sometimes feels impossible: 13 recommendations and not a single dissenting report. Mark Marissen is running for mayor in Vancouver. Marissen cut his teeth as a federal Liberal organizer when Chrétien won his first election in 1993. He served as a ministerial staffer, supported Paul Martin's leadership bid and then ran the party's campaigns in B.C. He headed up Stéphane Dion's leadership campaign and had a big hand in the party's 2008 campaign. Marissen was once married to former premier Christy Clark. The last word on Tapper: CNN's anchor said the Canadian people "deserve better" than their country's international standing on vaccine rollout. Tapper, who quasi-feuded with Ben Mulroney on Twitter, took umbrage at any suggestion he should ease up. His mom was born here, his grandpa fought the Second World War in the Royal Canadian Navy, and his great-uncle died in that war while serving in Canada's air force. Tapper even dubbed the government's defenders Tru-Anon . Thus concludes our coverage of this Twitter sideshow. We promise. The image of the day: Yesterday, Bloc Québécois MP Claude DeBellefeuille noted that she had spotted another parliamentarian on camera "in the simplest of attires." Soon enough, a grainy photo started circulating around the nation's capital of an MP in his office. Needless to say, DeBellefeuille wasn't exaggerating. Spare a moment for a duly elected official who later apologized and said he was simply changing into work clothes after a jog. Ottawa will get over it. But surely whomever shared the photo—likely a breach of parliamentary privilege—will have to eventually explain themselves. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 