By Nick Taylor-Vaisey

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Thanks for reading the Ottawa Playbook. Let’s get to it.

In today's edition:

→ On frozen nostril hair and connecting with Canadians.

→ Saskatchewanians re-elect SCOTT MOE.

→ TIFF MACKLEM returns to the House finance committee.

"Diplomacy is fundamentally about people connecting with each other," says Susannah Goshko. | Photo courtesy the British High Commission

EXIT INTERVIEW  — SUSANNAH GOSHKO's final week in Ottawa was a relatable one. Goshko, the outgoing British high commissioner, invited Playbook into her Rockcliffe Park residence for an exit interview.

The books were off the shelves. The sitting room was a bit echoey. With Goshko heading to Mexico, where she sets her sights on the British ambassadorship made abruptly vacant this year, her Crichton Lodge digs await her successor, ROBERT TINLINE.

Before Goshko departed leafy Ottawa for sunny Mexico City, she shared parting thoughts.

— Origin story: "Your minister for innovation is the reason I'm here," Goshko says. "FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE was foreign minister at the point that I worked for our foreign minister [DOMINIC RAAB], and he was so energetic."

Champagne and Raab represented "completely different sides of the political spectrum," she says. But they focused on the same question: "What can we get done?"

— Below-zero tradeoffs: Goshko applied for the job, despite the climate of this particular G7 capital. "I have actually really enjoyed your winters. They terrified me before coming here," she says. "I basically picked my postings to date on the basis of wanting to feel warm. And Canada was obviously a massive flaw in that plan."

The Mexico appointment was only public the day after our interview, but there was our biggest hint of her next posting.

— It's a big country: The epic scale of Canada's geography turns Goshko cerebral.

"What does it mean to live somewhere this vast, but also that could be, because of its climate, quite inhospitable — but actually, because of its people, is hugely hospitable," she muses. "I think a lot about how, as a country, you've managed to create that sense of community and hospitability, when actually, getting anywhere takes a long time, and for months of the year, if you go outside your nostril hair freezes."

→ Froze nose: "I tell people about that because it is so startling if you're from the U.K."

— Gender balance: Asked to describe her most impactful relationships in Canada, Goshko mentions the women she encountered. "You have so many brilliant women in senior jobs," she says. "It isn't that way everywhere."

Goshko namechecked Chief of the Defense Staff JENNIE CARIGNAN, national security and intelligence adviser NATHALIE DROUIN (and her predecessor, JODY THOMAS), and chief science adviser MONA NEMER.

— Frayed relations: The Canada-U.K. relationship made headlines earlier this year when the Brits walked away from free-trade negotiations. Goshko downplayed the impact of the impasse on the broader bilateral relationship.

"We're both countries that understand that in a negotiation, each side has to do what's right by its own citizens. And sometimes it makes sense to just draw a breath and think about things."

— AI in the office: Goshko remembers a meeting in London where all the heads of mission were counseled to embrace artificial intelligence. The message: "If as diplomats, you're not using AI in your day-to-day job, then you're not doing your jobs properly."

That got her thinking.

"Diplomacy is fundamentally about people connecting with each other, and I don't think that AI can replace human connection," she says. "But of course, there are ways that we can use this as a tool to help us be better at things, and so on a sort of personal level, I'm grappling with, what does that look like?"

— Advice for the new guy: Explore Canada, asap.

"To my eternal shame, there's large parts of Canada I haven't seen," Goshko says. "I really wanted to go to the Arctic. I feel particularly strongly that to understand Canada, you probably need to have been to the Arctic. My advice to [Tinline] would be, don't think you can do things tomorrow. Get on, get out there. Four years isn't enough to see all of Canada.”

We’ll send the full interview to Pro readers this morning.

A message from Canadian Chamber of Commerce:

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— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU will chair the Cabinet meeting and attend QP.

— Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND will attend Cabinet. At 1 p.m., she will provide an update on the government’s economic plan. Public Services Minister JEAN-YVES DUCLOS, Health Minister MARK HOLLAND and Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth MARCI IEN will also attend. She also has QP on her agenda.

— Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE has not released his itinerary.

— YVES-FRANÇOIS BLANCHET will hold a media briefing at 11 a.m. to discuss the Bloc’s Oct. 29 deadline. He’s expected to announce that his party will now be in “bring down the government” mode, the National Post reports.

— NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH will participate in QP.

— Green Leader ELIZABETH MAY will attend Parliament virtually.

— Industry Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE will be in Montreal. At 9 a.m., Champagne will speak on bilateral relations at the Canada-Italy Forum on Artificial Intelligence.

— Environment watchdog JERRY V. DEMARCO is top of the witness roster at the Senate energy, environment and natural resources committee this evening. On the agenda: The Net Zero Accelerator Initiative.

SASKATCHEWAN — SCOTT MOE has won a clear majority government, outpacing New Democrats who had appeared to gain a polling edge in Saskatchewan's campaign.

With most votes counted, Moe's Sask Party was victorious for the fifth time in a row, a feat that matches the NDP dynasty led by TOMMY DOUGLAS.

— Closer than usual: CARLA BECK's NDP did gain ground on Moe, elected or leading in 26 ridings before the mail-in ballots are counted later this week. That's up from 13 in 2020.

The Sask Party is on track to win 35, and nearly 53 percent of the provincewide vote.

"I've heard the message that was delivered here this evening and the Saskatchewan Party will be a government that works for all of the people of Saskatchewan," Moe told supporters.

BRITISH COLUMBIA — DAVID EBY's New Democrats are this close to securing a slim majority win following a final count of mail-in and absentee ballots.

Lieutenant Governor JANET AUSTIN asked Eby to continue as premier.

The NDP looks likely to secure 47 seats, the bare minimum for majority rule. JOHN RUSTAD's Conservatives are on pace to nab 44 seats, with the Greens holding 2.

— Not there yet: A pair of judicial recounts stand between Eby, Rustad and an officially official election result. The NDP's margin in Surrey-Guildford is an excruciatingly thin 27 votes. The Conservative lead in Kelowna Centre is 38 votes.

— Complications still to come: There's still the matter of electing a speaker for the B.C. legislature. If a New Democrat takes the chair, the government would be reduced to a minority — but even then, it's not quite that simple.

PROGNOSTICATOR AWARD — Earlier this fall, Playbook asked you to submit your picks for the three expected provincial elections before the end of the year.

This is the list of gamblers who correctly predicted an NDP win in B.C., a Liberal triumph in New Brunswick and a Sask Party victory in Saskatchewan: JASON DEVEAU, KYLE LARKIN, DON SPANNER, MARK RAMZY and SAAHIL GILL

— Meanwhile in Alberta: Premier DANIELLE SMITH readies herself for leadership vote.

STRONG WORDS — A high-profile Conservative hopeful is lashing out at the riding association in charge of his nomination race.

ANDREW LAWTON, a journalist and former Progressive Conservative candidate who wrote the first major biography of PIERRE POILIEVRE, is hoping to nab the party nod in Elgin-St. Thomas-London South.

Lawton recently told myFM, a local radio station, the riding association's handling of the nomination race has been "shameful and undemocratic." He accused the nomination committee of "trying to tilt" the race in favor of military veteran ANTHONY SHIELDS.

— Policy watch: Lawton claimed the "Red Tory cabal" asked him to support a pair of Liberal priorities: "During my interview, I was asked how I would protect Justin Trudeau’s dental and pharmacare programs. I was also asked for my plan to bring Hamas sympathizers into our party."

— Take your mark: The riding association's vice president, BRADLEY CLIFT, recently told the London Free Press that he's aiming for a contested nomination.

“We are definitely hoping to have a nomination, whether or not that means that there’s two candidates or there’s as many as four,” Clift said.

— Big promises often precede federal elections — like, say, a high-profile pledge to bring trains with European-style speed to Canada. Scoop via CBC News/Radio-Canada.

— Will PIERRE POILIEVRE’s housing tax plan speed up homebuilding? SABA AZIZ asked experts in this Global News report.

— From CP’s LAURA OSMAN and DAVID BAXTER: Several Liberal MPs want a secret ballot vote on Trudeau's leadership.

— On CBC’s “Front Burner” pod: Lessons from the last federal Liberal mutiny, feat. DAVID HERLE and SCOTT REID.

— In Policy mag, Sen. PETER BOEHM reviews "Rumours," a comedy about a fictional G7 summit. Boehm laughed along "like a pilot watching Airplane! or a police detective at a screening of The Naked Gun."

A message from Canadian Chamber of Commerce:

Our latest newsletter for POLITICO Pro subscribers by SUE ALLAN: How anxious should we be? Extremely. 

From POLITICO Canada’s MICKEY DJURIC: Google set to dole out C$100M to Canadian news publishers.

In other news for Pro readers: 

— US says North Korea has sent 10,000 troops to Russia.

— Wildfires are moving faster, causing more damage.

— US steel industry’s future looks protected, no matter who wins US election.

— Can Big Tech revive nuclear power?

— Tech giants sue Florida over law blocking kids from social media.

Birthdays: HBD to CHRISTY CLARK, retired general WALTER NATYNCZYK and former Alberta MLA TERESA WOO-PAW.

Got a document to share? A birthday coming up?  Send it all our way.

Spotted: SrategyCorp's LISA SAMSON, GARRY KELLER and ARIF LALANI, meeting with ABDULRAHMAN ALNEYADI, the United Arab Emirates' new ambo in Canada.

Noted: Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND is headed to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Friday for a legion hall breakfast fundraiser with Liberal MP TERRY SHEEHAN. 338Canada projection: CPC safe. Later that evening, Employment Minister RANDY BOISSONNAULT hosts an Edmonton Centre Circle fundraiser. 338Canada projection: CPC likely.

Media mentions: The Leaders' Debates Commission announced the producer and moderators for the next campaign's English and French debates. CBC/Radio-Canada will put on the shows. Journalists STEVE PAIKIN and PATRICE ROY will moderate.

Find the latest House meetings here. The Senate schedule is here.

9 a.m. The Senate transport and communications committee will spend its first hour studying local services provided by the CBC/Radio-Canada.

9:30 a.m. The Senate’s rules and procedures committee will study the role of non-affiliated senators.

11 a.m. Health Minister MARK HOLLAND will be guest of honor at the House health committee as it studies Bill C-368.

11 a.m. On the agenda at the House foreign affairs committee: “Canada's advancement of a two-state solution.”

11 a.m. The House public safety committee is studying “electoral interference and criminal activities in Canada by agents of the government of India.” On the witness roster: NATHALIE DROUIN of the Privy Council Office, DANIEL ROGERS of Canadian Security Intelligence Service and RCMP Commissioner MICHAEL DUHEME. 

11 a.m. During its first hour, the House official languages committee will hear from Statistics Canada as it contemplates the minority-language education continuum.

11 a.m. The House human resources committee continues its study on home building technologies.

11 a.m. CHRISTOPHER MACDONALD from the Department of the Environment will be at the House government operations committee as it probes the federal grants and contributions process.

3:30 p.m. Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders will be at the foreign affairs committee’s subcommittee on human rights as it studies forced migration.

3:30 p.m. The House national defense committee will be focused on space defense.

3:30 p.m. Bank of Canada Governor TIFF MACKLEM and Deputy Governor CAROLYN ROGERS will be at the House finance committee.

3:30 p.m. The House science and research committee will study the new capstone research funding organization announced in the most recent budget.

3:30 p.m. The House transport committee is studying the regulation of recreational boating on Canada’s waterways.

3:30 p.m. Canadian Cattle Association, Canadian Federation of Agriculture and CropLife Canada are among the witnesses at the House agriculture committee.

6:30 p.m. The Senate’s agriculture and forestry committee will study the growing issue of wildfires in Canada.

6:30 p.m. The Senate’s fisheries and oceans committee is studying ocean carbon sequestration and its use in Canada.

Behind closed doors: The House ethics committee will work on its report on disinformation and misinformation. The joint committee studying the declaration of the Emergencies Act is considering a draft report. The House procedure committee will work on a trio of reports.

A message from Canadian Chamber of Commerce:

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Monday's answer: From 1914-1920, almost 8,600 Ukrainians and other Europeans were imprisoned in 24 internment camps across Canada. National Internment Commemoration Day in Canada remembers victims of the injustice.

Props to JENN KEAY, MALCOLM MCKAY, RAY DEL BIANCO, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, DOUG RICE, ALEXANDER LANDRY, NANCI WAUGH, MARC SHAW, ANTHONY VALENTI, JOHN ECKER and MARCEL MARCOTTE.

Today’s question: Name the MP whose first name sits last alphabetically, and whose last name is first alphabetically, among all of their colleagues in the House.

Answers to ottawaplaybook@politico.com .

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