It’s not yet known what kind of a gift Canada will be giving U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence when he pays a visit to Ottawa at the end of next week.

We do know what Pence won’t be getting — a fully passed, brand-new law to implement the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade deal reached last fall.

Though Global Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said that it was “full steam ahead” on the trade-implementation bill after the U.S. lifted steel and aluminum tariffs last week, it’s not at all clear that the legislation can be passed before the pre-election campaign officially begins at the end of June.

Summer sittings in the Commons or the Senate are still a distinct possibility, which would put a real dent in the summer barbecue circuit for all those MPs looking to get re-elected this fall.

Pence will be the highest-ranking member of Donald Trump’s administration to visit Ottawa since the president was elected. Trump, apart from his quick trip to the G-7 meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec — complete with flaming exit — has not made any state visit to Canada yet.

Many of Trump’s predecessors made Canada their first international visit after being elected but this unconventional president, perhaps unsurprisingly, has not bowed to that convention.

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Pence also arrives in Ottawa when the U.S. is between ambassadors to Canada — another unusual situation.

The current ambassador, Kelly Craft, was formally nominated earlier this month to move on to the United Nations, replacing Nikki Haley. Perhaps Pence will arrive in Canada on Thursday with more hints about her replacement.

In the official announcement of his visit, the U.S. announced that Pence was coming here to push for passage of what Trump likes to call the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USMCA.) Here in Canada, it’s still being called NAFTA, by the way, or NAFTA II, at least unofficially by the Canadians who see it as an update to the old North American Free Trade Agreement.

“Vice-President Mike Pence will travel to Ottawa, Canada on behalf of President Donald Trump on Thursday, May 30th to call for swift adoption of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) and to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on next steps,” last Friday’s news release declared.

Pence has also been calling this week for Congress to pass the deal by the end of summer.

No one is placing any bets on Pence getting his wish in Canada. Politicians around here have many other plans for this summer — it being the official pre-election period — and sweltering sittings in July and August aren’t part of them.

To avoid that prospect though, a new trade bill would have to join the queue of nearly two dozen other pieces of legislation currently floating around in Parliament, awaiting passage before the election. It would need to be fast-tracked too.

Though there have been some reports that the implementing legislation would be introduced within days, Freeland’s spokesperson, Adam Austen, said on Thursday that no decision has yet been finalized on whether the bill would be in the Commons by the time Pence visits.

Nor is there any guarantee it could get on a fast track. There are some signs it might happen. In a moment of rare agreement, for instance, Conservatives and Liberals seem to be on side with making the deal into law.

Brock Harrison, spokesperson for Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, said this in an emailed statement on Thursday: “Justin Trudeau wasted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a better deal on NAFTA. However, Conservatives have worked hard to get tariffs removed and we recognize how important free trade with the United States is, so we will vote to ratify the deal in Parliament.”

The wild cards are the New Democrats and the independent Senate — both could put procedural obstacles into quick passage by the end of June.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is clearly not in favour of rushing any legislation through Parliament before it’s due to shut down in June. In a written statement sent to me in reply to questions for this column, Singh said: “We need to make sure we do trade in the best interest of Canadians. There is no reason to rush the implementation of this deal — the Liberal government could, and should, pressure Donald Trump to fix it.”

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Singh says he would rather see Trudeau working with the U.S. Democrats’ timeline in Congress. “The Democrats in the U.S. are trying to improve this deal to protect jobs and workers and Canadians expect the Liberal government to try to do the same thing …. By trying to rush this deal, they would be supporting President Trump in his pressure of the Democrats to drop the improvements they’re seeking.”

The Senate, meanwhile, has been fully embracing its independence, so no one — not even the U.S. vice-president — should count on it falling into line with Canada-U.S. wishes for passage of the new trade deal.

“Unpredictable” has become the guiding principle of Canada-U.S. relations since Trump was elected. The same goes for the pre-election future of the legislation to implement a deal that still doesn’t really have a real name around Ottawa. True to the climate of political disruption that seems to surround all things Trump, getting this deal passed in Canada could well disrupt the political summer in Canada.

Susan Delacourt is the Star’s Ottawa bureau chief and a columnist covering national politics. Reach her via email: sdelacourt@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt

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