Can the new guy at least save the birds? Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. A few hours after his inauguration, U.S. President Joe Biden invited journalists into the oval office for the first time. To his right, piled on the imposing Resolute Desk, sat a tall stack of executive actions. The first irritant in a new era in Canada-U.S. relations, the cancellation of the presidential permit authorizing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, was among Biden's first priorities on taking office. Jen Psaki, the new White House press secretary, told her first briefing last night that Biden's first call with a world leader will come tomorrow, when he gots on the line with Justin Trudeau. Trudeau seems to have abandoned all hope for the project, raising the ire of the Tory opposition and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, who floated the idea of imposing sanctions in retaliation. But if Biden won't budge on that key campaign promise, maybe Canada will have more luck convincing the new White House to reverse Donald Trump's weakening of penalties for companies that inadvertently kill migratory birds (a cross-border treaty protects cross-border avian travellers). Ottawa had also expressed official concern about the previous president's move to expand drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which threatens a binational porcupine caribou herd. Psaki said Biden had already slapped a moratorium—at least temporarily—on that proposed drilling. So there's a win. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Biden's to-do list is frighteningly long, and Maclean's watched closely as the democracy on the other side of Canada's southern border completed a peaceful transfer of power after two months of unsettling uncertainty. Vice-president Kamala Harris officially shattered a barrier. Biden delivered an inaugural address pleading for unity (read the full transcript). Amanda Gorman, the youngest-ever inaugural poet laureate, delivered a stirring poem. Here's what else we saw on inauguration day. Paul Wells on Joe Biden's speech: What did the new president offer the millions of Americans who watched him take the oath of office? He offered himself, writes Wells. It’s what Biden offered Americans from the start of his third campaign for the presidency: not so much a program or a faction, but mostly just his person. Recent Democratic presidents before him were dashing eggheads, a Rhodes Scholar, a Harvard Review man. Joe’s a plodder. He’s grieved and worried and screwed up in his life, often in front of the whole country. His dad worried about the mortgage and his mom told him to stand in the other person’s shoes, and they left him a family Bible as big as a bar fridge that he put his hand on when he took the oath. Why inauguration in lockdown suits Joe Biden perfectly: Massive crowds greeted Barack Obama on both of his inauguration days (when Biden took his own oath as veep). Smaller crowds watched Donald Trump. And a comparatively minuscule audience, amidst a pandemic, watched Biden yesterday. Probably fine by him, writes Patricia Treble. This stripped-down, locked-down inauguration perfectly suits Joe Biden. It plays to his strengths of empathy and compassion, his ability to connect with others and his desire to reach out beyond the Democratic base. If there is anyone who understands the suffering in the United States, it is Biden, a man forged by the crucible of heartache. Five takeaways from a day of 'hope and renewal': If you need to know just five things about yesterday's ceremony, Jason Markusoff is your man. Here's a taste from the first takeaway: Biden's call for unity. Biden inherits a Washington that prefers tracking wins and losses, that has stopped looking for compromise. To truly accomplish what he’s set out for himself, he will likely have to sacrifice—or at least slow-walk —parts of his own agenda. Unity will require him to instil patience on both sides of the partisan divide. Can he? Well, he’s waited 33 years since his first presidential run to get to this inauguration. Without question, Joe Biden has a lesson or two to offer when it comes to patience. History's little reassuring moments: With all the anxiety of the past four years melting away, if only for a day, Marie-Danielle Smith writes that observers could be forgiven for having the time to look around the stage for all the small details of the day that seem impossible to ignore once they're visible. The symbolism was not lost on us when the first Latina elected to the Supreme Court administered the oath for the first Black woman and the first South Asian woman to hold the office of Vice President. Neither was the irony, when the former seemed to mispronounce the latter’s name. And the juxtaposition was striking when the new VP, Kamala Harris, flashed a giant post-oath smile before putting her mask back on, only for the camera to pan to an inscrutable Mike Pence, an outgoing veep perhaps grateful that his facial expressions could remain a mystery. A house divided still stands: The United States faces intense political division. Biden's task might seem impossible. Then again, writes Scott Gilmore, American history offers no shortage of moments that nearly broke the nation. And yet there it is, still existing nearly 250 years on. The odds seem long. Americans seem to increasingly live-in separate worlds, governed by different values, defined by different economic realities, informed by different media. All of President Biden’s efforts to build bridges will be discounted by faithless news anchors, sabotaged by opposing politicians, thwarted by the forces of digital progress that seem to be beyond anyone’s control, and haunted by the nation’s own bloody history. But these have always been the odds. We also asked Gerald Butts, one of Justin Trudeau's closest advisors until 2019 and no stranger to pivotal political speeches, to share his observations and insights into Biden's inaugural. Butts set the stakes: The best of these addresses don’t hinge on programmatic elements or policy arguments. Say what you want about America’s civic values and American history’s frequent distant wanderings from them, Americans believe their catechism. The best of their leaders remind them of those values with imagination and vigour, describe without wagging their finger how they’ve fallen short of them, and project confidence that they can mend their ways. Meanwhile, back in Canada, Erin O'Toole's Conservatives officially booted MP Derek Sloan from the federal caucus. O'Toole said he voted to remove Sloan not because he was a social conservative, but thanks to a "pattern of destructive behaviour involving multiple incidents and disrespect towards the Conservative team." Sloan accused his former leader of marshalling "undemocratic forces" and urged his supporters to remain members of the party in advance of a policy convention. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 
