Thanks for reading Ottawa Playbook.

In today’s edition:

→ VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY is in town for his first visit since the war began.

→ What CHRYSTIA FREELAND said in New York.

ONCE MORE, BUT AMONG FRIENDS — Parliament is poised to end a tense and divisive first week back the same way it started: with a show of unity.

Question Period spats with MPs itching for battle after summer. A tense rally/counter-rally about trans rights that played out on the street just outside Parliament.

Those followed Monday’s surprise India bombshell news, after which MPs rallied together in nonpartisan expressions of concern. And it would be a shock if today’s VIP visit proved any different.

Ukraine President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY is in Ottawa to deliver a powerful speech to Parliament — they always are, that’s kind of his M.O. — surely to be met with a standing O by Canadian politicos cozy to his cause.

— Mr. Zelenskyy goes to— No, we’re not doing that.

— Paints a contrast: Fresh off his whirlwind trip to the U.S., where parts of the political spectrum (dozens of Hill Republicans) are flipping tables over the scale of support bound for Ukraine, it’ll be a nice change of pace for him.

— Harder sell: His olive-clad charm offensive south of the border was “probably even more important than last time precisely because there are more open expressions of skepticism within the U.S. political system,” said ROLAND PARIS, professor of international affairs at the University of Ottawa. “He understands that this is a war not just on the battlefield.”

He’s also recently lost Poland, which is backing out of providing arms.

Since the last time Zelenskyy came to North America in 2022, the stakes haven’t changed. But the situation on the battlefield has stagnated. Hopes this summer’s counter-offensive would produce the kind of dramatic results of last year have been dashed, Paris noted.

“This is a slug fest and they’re going through an enormous amount of ammunition and weapons and vehicles and other equipment.”

— Money and guns: Amid uncertainty over the next round(s) of support from the U.S., DAVID PERRY, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said he would be “very surprised” if there isn’t something announced from the last tranche of half a billion dollars Ottawa committed toward military support for Ukraine.

— Still lots of options: Canada has already more or less picked clean the “easily donatable stocks of equipment or munitions from the Canadian military.” But Perry pointed to a range of industry options. Canada could decide to offer protected vehicles from Roshel, armored vehicles from General Dynamics Land Systems, or vehicles built for the Canadian Army that haven’t been delivered yet. Or winter soldier gear. Or drone equipment. Or communications support.

“There’s munitions facilities in this country that can make the type of ammunition for small arms or howitzers or artillery that Ukraine needs,” he said. “But some of those things would need advanced orders and lead time.”

— The big question: From the outset, Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU has said the country will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes for Ukraine. But Ottawa has yet to commit to a long-term plan of military support. “I think it’s very clearly a war that’s not going to be wrapped up by Christmas,” Perry said.

— Mum’s the word: PMO has been tight-lipped to say literally anything about the trip — even more so than it usually is. The security concerns are real.

Zelenskyy is coming here at great personal risk. But that’s not new.

“He’s shown repeatedly” a willingness to do that “without being reckless,” said DOMINIQUE AREL, chair of Ukrainian studies at the University of Ottawa. “He goes to the frontline … you don’t see that from the other leader [in the conflict].”

PMO sent out a statement last night that said Trudeau and Zelenskyy will travel together to Toronto and meet with Canadian business leaders to “strengthen private sector investment in Ukraine’s future” before attending an event involving the Ukrainian-Canadian community.

— Friendly faces: Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND, who has a deeply personal connection to the conflict, has been known to invite visiting dignitaries to her Toronto home and cook for them — including Ukraine PM DENYS SHMYHALback in April.

Freeland’s office was silent on whether any such plans were in the works.

Did someone forward Ottawa Playbook your way? Click here to sign up for your own edition. It’s free!

10:40 a.m. Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU will greet President of Ukraine, VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, on Parliament Hill. After a welcome ceremony and bilateral meeting, they will be joined by Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND at 11:30 a.m.

1 p.m. Zelenskyy will address Parliament.

6:30 p.m. The PM, DPM and Zelenskyy will travel to Toronto for a roundtable with Canadian business leaders followed by an event with the Ukrainian-Canadian community at 8:30 p.m.

Up: DAVID JOHNSTON, who in an alternate timeline remained on as special rapporteur and watched his offices’ expenses blow up into a major scandal this week.

Down: Fans of legit travel advisories.

‘GENDER MATTERS’ — Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND fêted U.S. Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN on Wednesday at the 2023 Global Citizen Awards in New York. She called her friend and counterpart a role model for women. Here is a little bit more of what she had to say:

“I didn’t start by lauding Secretary Yellen as the first woman chair of the Federal Reserve and as the first woman secretary of the treasury, because the most important point about her is that she was an outstanding Federal Reserve chair and she is a formidable treasury secretary.

“But it is also unfortunately still true that her gender matters and that it makes a difference. It matters to women in the United States who are pursuing careers in economics and finance, women — fields where women are still vastly outnumbered. It matters to me and to every other woman in the room.

“We find it easier to speak up and we find it a heck of a lot easier to be heard when we are in a meeting where the secretary of the treasury, Janet Yellen, is speaking as well. Usually, they let her talk first, by the way. And it matters to the billions of women around the world who see in Secretary Yellen their own rightful place at the head table of global leadership.”

— Meanwhile in Washington: Concerns about Canada’s proposed digital services tax came up during a meeting between U.S. Deputy Trade Representative JAYME WHITE and Canadian International Trade Deputy Minister ROB STEWART.

A readout from White’s team stated he “encouraged Canada to redouble its commitment to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Two-Pillar process,” referencing an agreement by most of the intergovernmental organization’s 140 economies to defer a moratorium on similar digital taxes to the end of 2024.

The meeting followed a letter this week from a bipartisan group of House lawmakers in D.C. who want the Biden administration to increase pressure “to ensure Canada does not enact a DST or any other discriminatory unilateral measure.”

BEHIND THE SCENES — Senior finance and industry department officials held a tech briefing with media at 11 a.m. Thursday, an hour after Freeland tabled Bill C-56, titled “Affordable Housing and Groceries Act.”

Reporters were not provided a copy of the legislation in the hour between the bill being submitted in the House and the start of the briefing to inform their questions about a C$4.565-billion GST rental rebate measure and Competition Act reforms.

— Records of Indian diplomats communicating is part of the evidence linking a Sikh activist’s death in Canada to India, EVAN DYER and ALEX PANETTA report for CBC.

— Global’s STEWART BELL and JEFF SEMPLEreport RCMP are investigating the death of B.C. man who was targeted for being critical of Beijing.

— CATHARINE TUNNEY of CBC News reports that HAN DONG — the MP who left the Liberal caucus to fight a claim he meddled in the detentions of two Canadians — says he met with Public Safety Minister DOMINIC LEBLANC and is waiting to learn whether he’ll be able to rejoin the Liberal caucus.

— In the inaugural episode of POLITICO’s new global podcast Power Play, host ANNE MCELVOY talks to KEIR STARMER, the man who hopes to be Britain’s next PM.

— POLITICO’s LEONIE KIJEWSKI reports that the EU is basing many of its sanctions decisions — cutting off assets and banning travel into the bloc — on shaky evidence.

— “It is always good to be reminded of how close the past is,” HOWARD ANGLIN writes over on The Hub.

If you’re a subscriber, don’t miss our latest policy newsletter from NICK TAYLOR-VAISEY and ZI-ANN LUM: Trudeau stays aggressively vague on India.

In other news for Pro subscribers:

— Japan, Canada ink new deals to pave way for major battery investments.

— Ukraine details WTO case against Poland, Hungary, Slovakia.

— EU privacy chiefs want more power to control Big Tech.

— King Charles calls for climate action 24 hours after Sunak’s net zero U-turn.

— Biden expands climate social cost metric to budgeting, procurement.

— Federal court weighs blocking Line 5 pipeline shutdown.

Birthdays: Former chief of defense staff MAURICE BARIL is 80. And HBD to former MP GARY MERASTY. Celebrating Saturday: Journo GORD MARTINEAU. On Sunday: Pocket Lobbyist’s MELISSA CAOUETTE.

Send birthdays to [email protected] .

Spotted: U.S. ambo DAVID COHEN, security detail in tow, walking into the Elgin Street McDonald’s at lunchtime … Liberal MP TIM LOUIS using his SO31 to wish his wife BRENDA LOUIS a happy anniversary: “Your support and belief in me is why I’m here in this House today.”

Japan’s Economy, Trade and Energy Minister YASUTOSHI NISHIMURA in Ottawa noting that Canada is the first country with which Japan has signed a battery agreement..

Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE testing a new pejorative label for the government: “Limousine Liberals,” which is also a book by NYC-based historian and writer STEVE FRASER.

“I was there.” said Liberal MP GREG FERGUS, acknowledging for the record that Poilievre “mistakenly and unintentionally” said the N-word earlier this week during a statement about HARDEEP SINGH NIJJAR. Hansard’s record is clean.

SAUL RAE’s copy of the U.N. Charter, which BOB RAE carries around in his pocket.

Movers and shakers: Federal NDP president DHANANJAI KOHLI says he won’t run again for the post ahead of the party’s convention next week.

Media mentions: Carleton University’s journalism program will launch a scholarship in honor of Palestinian journalist SHIREEN ABU AKLEH this evening. Abu Akleh was fatally shot in May 2022 while reporting for Al Jazeera at the entrance to Jenin refugee camp, in the West Bank.

“Shireen was a trailblazer, among the first female journalists in the Arab world to be seen on TV as a war correspondent, complete with a flak jacket and helmet,” MP IQRA KHALID told the House of Commons Thursday as she shared news of the award.

The Narwhal marked the second anniversary of its Ontario bureau the same day Ontario Premier DOUG FORD announced a reversal on the Greenbelt.

Thursday’s answer: VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY made his North American debut in July 2019 in Toronto at the Ukraine Reform Conference.

Props to KARINA SUBOTA, GEORGE SCHOENHOFER and ROBERT MCDOUGALL.

Today’s question: Who was the first legally married couple to serve as Members of Parliament at the same time?

Send your answer to [email protected]

Think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best .

Want to grab the attention of movers and shakers on Parliament Hill? Want your brand in front of a key audience of Ottawa influencers? Playbook can help. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: [email protected]

Playbook wouldn’t happen without: POLITICO Canada editor Sue Allan, editor Emma Anderson and Luiza Ch. Savage.