Currently, only lobbyists working more than 28 hours a month are required to publically register with the commissioner of the Commissioner of Lobbying.
https://lobbycanada.gc.ca/app/secure/ocl/lrs/do/guest
A lot of lobbying in Canada is undisclosed.
Let’s say you are a lobbyist for an AI company. The AI minister (yes, that’s a real thing) wants to introduce a bill that you really don’t like.
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You write a letter to the AI minister to invite him for dinner. (1hour)
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You spend one morning to prepare what you will talk about (3hours)
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His office calls you to change the date (15 minutes)
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You call back his office to confirm the date and location (15 minutes).
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You go to the restaurant wisth the minister (3 hours)
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He agrees to meet you one week later in his office to discuss changes to the bill (2 hours).
That’s less than 9 hours and 30 minutes. It’s below the 28 hours threshold so you don’t have to disclose anything.
On January 19, 2026, Canada will become a slightly less corrupt country.
The threshold below which no registration is required will change from 28 hours to 8 hours over a four-week period. More people will be required to register.
The system is still a disaster, but at least it’s an improvement.
I don’t think one dinner would be enough to change my vote on anything unless you’ve got one hell of an argument. If MPs were that cheap, I think their constituents would gladly buy them a meal.
It’s the money.
What if it’s Taco Bell?
Well, why didn’t you say?
In the US, there’s congressmen who’ve been bought for less than 6-figures
I read “dinner” as “negotiating the bribe”
Maybe You’re a Lobbyist After All: Strict New Federal Guidance Released
This above is the article’s title.
Why imply that Canada is a corrupt country by making up the title, OP?
Because lobbying is just legalized bribery. And any country that allows it, is corrupt.
Same with party contributions. It’s just bribery. We need to ban lobbying, and ban political party contributions and cap election spending equally across the parties.
See the insurance industry. Completely corrupt with government at federal and provincial levels, except those provinces with public insurance.
Not really.
Lawmakers in a democracy can’t possibly be experts on all the fields they make laws about. Without any lobbyists at all, they wouldn’t know what kinds of laws any organizations (whether for-profit or not) would like to see passed. This would likely cause worse laws to be passed.
Ultimately lobbying is just (parts of) the population attempting to influence what happens in politics, which is what is supposed to happen in a democracy.
In some cases what you say may be true, but not in all.
You’re thinking of an advisor. You pay an advisor, you get paid by a lobbyist.
Lobbyists are not experts. Well maybe only experts in making more money by pushing deregulations. Lobbying sdo not gives advices they try to force policies on politicians
Ultimately lobbying is just (parts of) the population attempting to influence what happens in politics, which is what is supposed to happen in a democracy.
No it fucking isn’t! Lobbying is people getting paid to attempt to influence what happens in politics, which is what makes it corrupt.
" the population " can’t afford a lobbyist. Corporations can. And that’s who gets to make the laws. It is a corrupt system, where politicians are given gifts, and vacations, to vote a certain way.
There’s nothing for the people in those talks.
There are lobbyists for non-profits (that you can donate to if you agree with their goals) too.
In the US, the reason corporations hire lobbyists is that it has a ROI that is bigger than most of their main businesses.
And that return comes from tax revenue. So it is much more expensive for us to allow lobbyists.
That “expertise” angle used to make some sense, before we created long distance communication. But today, politicians have staff, and the staff have access to the internet and telephones. If they need an expert, they can just call one.
Again, it would be much cheaper to hire researchers for politicians than to allow lobbying to continue.
I see no reason why anyone who isn’t a constituent should have easy access to a politician.
I should upvote this because it’s both interesting and important, but I also want to downvote you for editorialising the actual headline. So I’ll do neither. Good day!
