With the House of Commons on hiatus for the next two weeks, a trio of Team Carney front benchers will be hitting the ministerial hustings in and around Montreal tomorrow.

First up: Government Transformation Minister Joël Lightbound and Industry Minister Mélanie Joly make a mid-morning visit to Mirabel, Que., to share the details of the latest contracts awarded under the newly-created Defence Investment Agency “in support of Canadian Armed Forces operations,” as per the advisory. (Monday a.m.)

Later that same day, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne will join Quebec public security minister Ian Lafrenière, Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada and Montreal police chief Fady Dagher, as well as Montreal-area Liberal MP Rachel Bendayan, who also serves as parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, to “highlight” his government’s plan to “combat economic crime activities that harm Canadian individuals, businesses and communities,” which, as per the notice, will “address growing extortion concerns” and include an “update on developing the National Anti-Fraud Strategy.” (Monday p.m.)

Moving west, Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski will drop by Edmonton City Hall with a fresh tranche of federal support via the Crime Prevention Action Fund. (Monday a.m.)

As for Prime Minister Mark Carney, the only upcoming event on his public itinerary is an evening appearance at a $1,175-per-ticket reception at the Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham, Ont. that may well wind up attracting significantly more media attention than expected due to one of the three co-hosts listed on the online invitation: namely, Michael Ma, whose name appears alongside those of fellow Greater Toronto Area Liberal MPs Tim Hodgson and Gary Anandasangaree. (Monday p.m.)

After scoring a narrow victory in Markham — Unionville under the Conservative banner, Ma abruptly abandoned the party to join the Liberal caucus just before the precinct shut down for the holidays in December, and has now found himself back in the headlines in the wake of a highly-charged — and potentially politically problematic — exchange at an committee meeting last week.

During what CBC News describes as an “aggressive” back-and-forth with University of Ottawa senior fellow Margaret McCuaig-Johnson, who had been invited to testify as part of the committee’s self-initiated review of federal policy on electric vehicles, Ma “asked a series of rapid-fire yes or no questions that appeared to seek to undermine her expertise as well as allegations of human rights violations against China,” including “whether she personally has witnessed forced labour in Shenzhen.”

In its initial response, Ma’s office “said he was using a ‘common CPC tactic’ of asking short yes or no questions to a witness ‘in order to control the flow of the dialogue,’” with Ma using “a quick burst of [yes or no] questions to move away from the anti-China EV witness and then give the floor to the pro-China EV witness,” as per the statement released by his office.

A few hours later, Ma addressed the controversy directly in a note posted to Facebook.

“Today, during an exchange with a witness at the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology, I asked questions that inadvertently came across as dismissive of the serious issue of forced labour,” he wrote.

“To be clear, my line of questioning referred to auto manufacturing in Shenzhen, China, and not in Xinjiang. I regret this mistake and apologise to Ms. McCuaig-Johnston and my fellow committee members. I condemn forced labour, in all its forms. Canada has amongst the most rigorous forced-labour import laws in the world, and I am proud to support the government’s work to eradicate forced labour from supply chains and enforce Canada’s import prohibition.”

• Elsewhere in southwestern Ontario, Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin joins her caucus colleague Lisa Hepfner at an evening reception in Hamilton, Ont., with all proceeds from the $250 ticket cost earmarked for the Hamilton Mountain Federal Liberal Association. (Monday p.m.)
• Industry Minister Mélanie Joly kicks off back-to-back laps on the spring fundraising circuit in Saint-Sauveur, Que., where she’ll make the rounds alongside local Liberal MP Tim Watchorn at a $500-per-ticket reception hosted by the Federal Liberal Association of Les Pays-d’en-Haut (Tuesday p.m.) before jetting to Vancouver to headline another $500-per-ticket event — this time, to fill the coffers of the Pitt Meadows–Maple Ridge Federal Liberal Association (Wednesday p.m.).
• Secretary of State (Combatting Crime) Ruby Sahota mingles with supporters at a $400-per-ticket reception organized by the Brampton North — Caledon Federal Liberal Association. (Thursday p.m.)

Also on the radar: Montreal Institute for Global Security (MIGS) executive director Kyle Matthews teams up with Institute for Economic and Peace (IEP) official Michael Collins and former senior intelligence analyst Phil Gurski to deliver what the advisory is billing as an “expert briefing” on the “key findings” of the IEP’s latest Global Terrorism Index, which “analyses terrorist activity, emerging trends, regional shifts, and the broader geopolitical factors shaping the global landscape of terrorism.” (Wednesday a.m.)

Finally, a little less than a year after the party racked up its worst electoral performance in modern political history, the federal New Democrats have collectively chosen longtime party activist Avi Lewis to lead the charge next time around.

As Canadian Press reports, Lewis was able to seal his victory on the first round, with nearly 40,000 New Democrats putting him at the top of their ranked ballot — which, along with representing a little over 56 per cent of the total votes cast, was nearly double the haul of his closest competition, Alberta MP Heather McPherson, who “placed second with just shy of 21,000 votes, followed by social worker Tanille Johnston, union leader Rob Ashton and farmer Tony McQuail,” the wire service notes.