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Four years ago, the Prime Minister’s Office announced something revolutionary: Justin Trudeau’s daily schedule would be public. The world would know what he was up to.

Well, not that revolutionary. The U.S. president’s daily itinerary is both a matter of public record, and quite detailed. But in Canada, a land of polite secrecy, it was a step in the right direction.

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“Such an advisory, with the prime minister’s schedule, will be released daily — in the spirit of openness and transparency,” one press flack told the Huffington Post in 2016. The idea would be that “at least people know what their prime minister is doing, where he is and have a sense of his activities,” another told the Toronto Star.

The U.S. president’s daily itinerary is a matter of public record and quite detailed

Knowing what the prime minister is up to, from the meetings he holds with his own caucus, to the phone calls he makes to foreign leaders, to the briefings he gets from various officials and advisers — this is useful stuff to know.