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WELCOME TO OTTAWA PLAYBOOK. I'm your host, Zi-Ann Lum, with Nick Taylor-Vaisey. It’s Wednesday, but not one stacked with caucus meetings. Those Wednesdays begin in late November when Parliament officially returns. Today, we’re taking a crash course on the art of chairing a hybrid caucus meeting — and the awesome power that is controlling everyone’s microphone.

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NEW HOUSE RULES — Want to enter the House of Commons precinct? You’ll have to bring proof that you’re fully vaccinated as of Nov. 22. That’s the long-awaited decision from the House’s secretive Board of Internal Economy, which brings the vaccine mandate right inside Ottawa’s halls of power.

— From the office of House Speaker ANTHONY ROTA, the mandate applies to “any person who wishes to enter the House of Commons Precinct, including Members and their staff, political research office employees, Administration employees, members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, parliamentary business visitors, contractors and consultants.”

— Exemptions: Kids under 12 are exempt. So are people who have a “medical contraindication to full vaccination against COVID-19” if they provide proof of a recent negative COVID-19 rapid antigen test result.

— Eyes on CPC leader: ERIN O'TOOLE has so far refused to openly support forced vaccinations of his caucus. The Board of Internal Economy, though, includes a Tory MP.

CAUCUS, CAUCUS, CAUCUS — O'Toole's first caucus meeting after winning the party’s leadership in 2020 was a hybrid one. Conservaitve MP TOM KMIEC, who was caucus chair at the time, told Playbook he spent about two months working with House administration, security, and health and safety people to get the logistics right.

“We decided that we were going to use the Sir John A. Macdonald Building pretty quickly,” Kmiec said. The former bank building is directly across the street from West Block. It has a tall vaulted ceiling — and flexible floor plan. “You could just set it up for caucus meetings and just leave it that way,” the former national caucus chair said. “And other caucuses could use it too.”

The Conservatives’ usual pre-pandemic caucus meeting room was in the basement of West Block. Caucus chairs are considered House officers and are allowed to keep a booking on a room. But since that basement room was also used for committee meetings, Kmiec said once committees took priority, booking it for caucus meetings became difficult.

— Party preferences: The furniture would have to be regularly flipped to stage chairs in the party’s preferred theatre-style layout with all chairs facing the front. (The NDP, for example, prefers to arrange tables and chairs into a large rectangle so people can see who’s speaking.)

“We're also the biggest opposition caucus, we have a lot of senators,” Kmiec said. Unlike Liberal caucus meetings, staff aren’t allowed to join Conservative MPs and senators. Staff are only allowed in if members hold a vote. Kmiec said the first few months of virtual caucus meetings were “150 people on basically a phone call with a video option.”

The pandemic, though, offered flexibility in scheduling.

“Our caucus always used to meet on Wednesday mornings. We started moving caucus around Saturdays, Mondays, like whenever and as often as necessary,” Kmiec said. “I would call meetings whenever there was a need for it, which is pretty darn regular.”

— Unexpected distraction: The “avalanche of texting” surprised Kmiec. “People would text or send a Slack message or whatever way they felt most comfortable to tell me that interpretation wasn't working, that someone's mic wasn't functioning well. It was an echo.”

— Baseball lessons: Kmiec had a staffer in the room to help him manage the hybrid meeting. “You get really good at hand signals, and your staff becomes really good at reading your hand signals,” he said. For example, his staffer would throw up eight fingers to signify to him across the room that eight people had their hands up on Zoom, waiting to speak.

— Best part of the job: Controlling who speaks is ironically not a power the Speaker of the House wields. “Those rules don't apply within caucus,” Kmiec said. “I literally control all the microphones when I ran the caucus meetings, and I would cut people off, including my own leader.” There’s a 60-second speaking time limit for speakers, he said. Two minutes if it was a more tense meeting.

Try that on your next Zoom...

You are invited: The Coalition for a Better Future will host a summit in Ottawa Oct. 27-28 that gathers innovators, problem-solvers and thought-leaders from Canada and beyond to help point the way toward a more inclusive, sustainable and prosperous future.

POLITICO Canada is partnering with the Coalition for a Better Future to provide special coverage of the two-day event where participants will explore new ideas to reduce inequality, combat climate change, raise living standards and tangibly improve the lives of all Canadians. Register here to be part of this live-streamed event.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in "private meetings." He'll also meet with three opposition counterparts: Tory leader ERIN O'TOOLE, New Democrat leader JAGMEET SINGH, and Green (parliamentary) leader ELIZABETH MAY.

Trudeau will canvas the trio for legislative priorities. Mandatory vaccinations for MPs are also on the agenda. "Canadians expect their elected representatives to lead by example in the fight against this virus," read a PMO statement last week.

Defence Minister HARJIT SAJJAN is packing his bags for Brussels, where he'll attend NATO meetings tomorrow and Friday.

JEN GERSON writes at The Line that Alberta wants to be more like Quebec: "The provinces exist on flip sides of the very same coin; they are each others' dark twins, and Alberta seeks mostly to emulate its French sibling."

FATIMA SYED's The Backbench podcast brought together former Liberal cabmin CATHERINE MCKENNA (she's still everywhere) and former Tory MP KENNY CHIU. They talked caucus politics, their freedom to speak truth to party leaders, and the complex policy landscape of Canada-China relations.

DAVID HERLE convened the Curse of Politics crew, SCOTT REID and JENNI BYRNE. They immediately confront Proof senior VP GREG MACEACHERN's complaint that certain unnamed podcasters "meander for five to 10 minutes before starting."

Another podcast: Tory MP JAMIE SCHMALE posted his latest edition of The Blueprint, a podcast for fellow Conservatives. He invited caucus colleague KELLY MCCAULEY to talk inflation and the rising cost of living in Canada.

What are you listening to? Playbook wants to know.

If you’re a Pro subscriber, catch ANDY BLATCHFORD and ZI-ANN LUM in our Canada PM newsletter: Biden's pick for U.S. envoy to Canada moves 1 step closer to Ottawa

In other news for Pros:

— Severe drought in Western Canada exposes critical gaps in disaster relief
— Quebec to ban all fossil fuel extraction in province
— A field guide to Covid-19 boosters
— The Manchin and Bernie show consumes Democrats
— Biden bets his agenda on the inside game

Birthdays: JULIE PAYETTE, an astronaut who spent 25 days in space and later served 1,208 days as Canada's governor general, is 58.

A pair of Prairie-raised political titans also celebrated on this day: NELLIE MCCLUNG, whose famous Persons Case was decided just two days before her birthday; and TOMMY DOUGLAS, the Saskatchewan preacher and premier (and NDP leader) who gave rise to modern medicare.

Birthdays, gatherings, social notices: Send them our way.

Spotted: ERIC MILLER, president of the Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, back on the Hill: "Big smile as I make my first trip to Ottawa since the onset of the pandemic." (You have to click to get the joke.) … Outgoing Edmonton mayor DON IVESON greeting his incoming successor, AMARJEET SOHI, at City Hall.… Sohi's future counterpart in Calgary, JYOTI GONDEK, making her first post-election appearance on Power & Politics.… Conservative Leader ERIN O’TOOLE meeting IRL with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

Movers and shakers: IAN WAYNE, a longtime NDP staffer who now works for KATHLEEN MONK's Monk + Associates, is repping the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada on the Hill.… Summa's LINDSAY STEVENS is lobbying on behalf of Bluink, an ID verification firm that wants "alignment between provincial vaccine certifications and federal standards." (They're not alone.)

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board recently lobbied a pair of Global Affairs officials — DAVID HARTMAN and GILLIAN FROST — on international trade.... The Public Health Agency of Canada is beefing up its team of outsourced project managers and auditors.

FRÉDÉRIK LAROUCHE joined StrategyCorp's Ottawa office as a senior consultant. … Smart Prosperity Institute post-doctoral fellow NATHAN LEMPHERS now works for the government, joining Environment and Climate Change Canada to “phase out fossil fuel subsidies.”

Media moves: CTV’s Chief Anchor LISA LAFLAMME is on medical leave for a “non-COVID-related illness,” the broadcaster said. The veteran journalist is recovering from major abdominal surgery.… Journalist ERIKA IBRAHIM joins The Canadian Press’ Ottawa bureau.… CNN's JOHN KING, the master of the "magic wall," announced Monday that he is immunocompromised: "I'm going to share a secret I've never shared before… I have multiple sclerosis. So I'm grateful you're all vaccinated."

What is happening? Questions about the Hill? Send them our way.

Tuesday’s answer: A Kentuckian Confederate agent, BENNETT H. YOUNG, gathered a smattering of armed associates and robbed three banks in St. Albans, Vermont on this day in 1864. Young & Co. were tried in a Canadian court, which ruled they could not be extradited because they were acting on Confederate military orders. One of their lawyers? JOHN ABBOTT, who later served a stint as Canada's third prime minister.

Bonus marks: ADAM MAYERS wrote about the broader consequences of the raid in his book, Dixie and the Dominion Canada, the Confederacy, and the war for the Union:

"The town — indeed the whole northern U.S. frontier — would be left in shock. In Washington, Congress would call for an invasion of Canada. In Quebec City, Governor General Monck would dismiss the attack as the work of "miscreants" — mere bandits, marauding under the guise of soldiers. And for Canada's Fathers of Confederation gathering at Quebec to craft a constitution, this chain of events would give a new urgency to their talks."

Full marks to GANGA WIGNARAJAH, RON CREARY, LAURA JARVIS, ART WHITAKER, CHRIS RADOJEWSKI and RYAN HAMILTON. Props on the multiple-choice portion to GORD MCINTOSH, MICHEL BREAU, ROY NORTON, BOB KOCZERA, JOSHUA ROKACH, MARTIN PARTRIDGE, CHRIS HYDE, MEREDITH BERRIMAN and ELIZABETH TACKABERRY.

Wednesday’s question: Still on the border, today marks the 203rd anniversary of the treaty that settled on the 49th parallel as the boundary for a long stretch of the Canada-U.S. frontier. How many provinces sit entirely north of that line? (A tip of the hat to Historica Canada's book, Canada 365, for inspiring this question.)

Send your answers to [email protected] — and if you have a trivia question about Canada or Canadian politics to share with Playbook readers, we welcome it this way.

Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness amongst this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Alejandra Waase to find out how: [email protected]

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