The Thursday Question 2:11: Utterly useless lobbying
Mr. Poilievre makes a stir
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Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre made a big a stir last week when he traveled almost as far as you can from Ottawa and still be in Canada to speak to the Vancouver Board of Trade. It was, he noted, his first speech to a chamber of commerce since becoming leader and came after he had spoken on many shop floors and in many union halls.
Anyone involved in tour planning knows how difficult Mr. Poilievre’s tour has been. The chamber of commerce lunch is the easiest tour plan to make. Chambers are always happy to hear from political leaders. They hold events in hotel ballrooms, which makes for easy set-up, easy AV, and easy security. The audience is well-dressed and polite. The conservative chamber speech is familiar terrain – taxes, regulation, infrastructure, investment, hard work, rah rah rah. Back when news coverage mattered, reporters could easily find the hotel, take notes on the speech, and file before deadline. Visiting a factory floor is tougher. Factories are usually in industrial areas designed for trucks and deliveries rather than political events. They have poor acoustics and tough AV set up. Even when management lets you interrupt the work in progress, they’re noisy. So, Mr. Poilievre’s team has picked a hard road by visiting so many workplaces and so few chamber lunches.
But it wasn’t the venue that made the stir; it was his remarks. He opened by saying he found Ottawa’s business lobbyists “utterly useless” at advocating for the common-sense interests of people. (Note to Ottawa lobbyists: the line got a big cheer from the audience.) The line was perfectly designed to attract social media attention, and it did.
The rest of the speech was more reassuring to the audience. Mr. Poilievre repeated his admiration for people who take risks and build businesses. He talked about the importance of free enterprise in building the economy, unleashing the aspirations of ambitious people, and forming our culture of honesty, hard word, and reciprocity. But, he said, he wasn’t interested in doing favours for those who short circuit the public debate. Business lobbyists spend too much time wining and dining cabinet ministers at the Rideau Club (founded by Conservatives, no?) to show off their latest ESG reports, and not enough time building public support for their positions. (Who on earth showed off an ESG report to Mr. Poilievre?)
Opposition leaders and their supporters have been known to make populist speeches attacking lobbyists and lobbying before winning power, and then turn their attention to corporate advisory work and government relations after losing power. I spent a few months at a lobbying firm after I left PMO, and I sometimes envy the money that some of my Harper government friends make in government relations. But then I go back to my day job: spotting talent, and helping students start their lives. Universities matter, and conservatives shouldn’t surrender universities to the political left.
I have criticized lobbying at times. The first issue of The Thursday Question wondered why the top business lobby group in Alberta – a province that elects a lot of Conservative MPs and not many Liberals – would host a big event in Ottawa featuring three Liberals and no Conservatives. Why, I asked, give the Prime Minister a platform to deliver a partisan attack on his opponents? But since then I have come to wonder - I am sure the Business Council asked Mr. Poilievre to speak at the event. Was he elsewhere? Was he unable to attend? The event would have benefitted from his speech….
Mr. Poilievre’s Vancouver speech had some messages about business and government relations in Canada today.