What to expect from Parliament Hill this fall

OTTAWA (660 NEWS) – Federal politicians are back in the House of Commons today for the fall sitting of Parliament, with just over a year before the next election.

Maclean’s is marking the moment with an exclusive hour-long interview with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau taking place at 7p.m. (ET), 5 p.m. (MT)

This fall sitting will be the unofficial start to the election campaign as parties try to test messaging, stake out positions and take their opponents down a notch or two.

“I don’t think the issue mix will be very different from what it was in the spring, but the volume will be turned up,” said Maclean’s senior writer Paul Wells. “Essentially the campaign is on now.”

He added it could get feisty as the government and opposition clash over the ongoing NAFTA negotiations, the potential troubles with marijuana legalization, the saga around the Trans Mountain pipeline and the rise in border crossers.


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While marijuana legalization could be a success story for the government, Wells thinks it will turn out to be more of an administrative headache.

“Implementation problems, supply problems, things like that, will take months [to sort out] at least. I don’t think they’ll be saying, ‘Well, at least you can smoke pot now.”


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Wells says the opposition will likely pounce on energy and the environment.

“On carbon tax, the question is, is life affordable in general under the Liberals? On pipelines, they’re going to get hammered from both sides. The NDP will say, ‘Well, you’re still the pipeline party,’ and the Conservatives will say, ‘But you couldn’t get pipelines built.'”

Wells says he hopes to press the Prime Minister on all this when they sit down for their one hour interview, noting it won’t be filled with fluff.

“I’m not only going to talk to him about his socks–there’s some serious business to take care of.”

You can watch the live stream of the interview here.

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