The Pierre Poilievre memo in the National Post landed like a bombshell in the social media feeds & inboxes of Canada’s lobbying class. It called out something I’ve longed believed to be a sad secret of corporate lobbying in Canada – much of it is unimpactful performative theatre that stopped being effective a long time ago.
Today, Canadian corporate lobbying relies on the fact that many clients and corporate leaders don’t know how the policy making process works. So, they hire well-connected lobbyists (usually former political staffers) who can help them navigate their issue through the fog of policy & political decision making.
The result is a rinse and repeat approach to advocacy in Canada that is mostly about making corporate lobbyists and their bosses feel good about, well, being corporate lobbyists. In his memo, Poilievre calls out this approach when he says:
“At the most, the [biggest business lobby groups in Canada] hold pointless luncheons and meetings and write op-eds or record interviews that almost no one sees.” – CPC Leader Pierre Poilievre, the National Post Memo.
Let’s be clear.
There isn’t a lobbyist in Canada who is innocent of the feel-good approach to advocacy. They do it for a few reasons. One is self-preservation. Results in government relations take time – sometimes a lot of time, often years. Feel good government relations is a way that lobbyists can show their work to their bosses or clients to say, “see, it’s working!”
The other is about profit. It’s profitable for firms to standardize a set of tactics and approaches to government relations that look impactful (e.g. Parliament Hill/QP receptions) but don’t rock the boat with people in government. If your business model relies on maintaining good relationships with people in government, how likely are you to advise a client to take a stand on an issue that upsets those same folks?
The third reason is a consumer focused approach (Poilievre’s thesis) to changing public opinion & policy is difficult and expensive. Digital media, public relations and on the round organizing is hard. Cutting through social media and reaching consumers often requires ad budgets and compelling creative.
The good news is mobilizing public opinion has always been a best practice in the advocacy world – including when it forces you, as an advocacy group, to challenge the government in power. While some would say it burns bridges, I’ve always believed it helps craft better public policy outcomes and makes advocacy groups stronger if people know you are wiling to take a stand.
A few years back, I helped run a campaign on the municipal land transfer tax, that, the day it launched, generated (not intentionally) a not so flattering image of the Premier of Ontario on the front page of the Toronto Sun. That day, a CEO from a provincial industry association called me to say, “You’ve burnt a bridge and you’ll never rebuild it as long a the Wynne team is at Queen’s Park.”
The campaign went on to leverage a combination of tactics including earned media, advocate engagement, advertising and grassroots organizing to mobilize the public on our issue. In the end, we sent over 50,000 messages to MPP offices and six weeks later the Minister stood up in the House and announced they weren’t going ahead with the tax. A nice win.
But what about that bridge? The following year we partnered with the Wynne team to do some great policy work on the early responses to the housing affordability crisis and later industry regulatory reform. So much for that prediction by my CEO friend!
In calling out a sad secret of corporate lobbying, Poilievre has signaled to the lobbying class in Canada that, should he form government, the old-way of influencing public policy is in decline. Thankfully, many of these tactics had stopped being effective a long time ago.
But whether it’s taking a stand on an issue or mobilizing consumers, the good news is grassroots advocacy can be incredibly effective at both changing public policy and strengthening your corporate brand. My guess is we’ll be seeing a lot more of it come Fall 2025.
