It’s unethical for lobbyists to exist
Lobbyists as they exist now? Definitely.
The original concept for them is an important thing to have in a democratic system. You can’t expect politicians to be intimately familiar with the ins and outs of every industry, which leads to ineffective regulation. It makes sense to have a person whose job it is to translate the needs of the industry to the politicians.
The problems come when that person has an incentive and a sizable budget to twist policy to the advantage of shareholders rather than consumers or workers.
I agree here. The issue is that lobbyists can give donations and kickbacks. The act of lobbying isn’t a problem, it’s that lobbying as it stands right now is basically the same as legal bribery, which is the real issue.
Politicians shouldn’t be able to receive anything from lobbyists (or anybody for that matter), and be barred from working for companies connected with decisions made during their term for at least ten years.
It’s obvious looking at the US, that corruption had flourished for decades to the extreme, making politicians being entirely pocketed by large industries rather than working for the people who actually voted them in. It’s not as bad up here, but you can see how so many of our leaders chose the interests of specific businesses over the public interest.
Arguable. Lobbyists as bribe providers? Yes. Lobbyists as expert subject matter consultants to the legislative? A necessary evil.
Good point. We DO need someone to provide the bribes after all
Wow, I didn’t know 16% of Canadians are in the government. That’s wild.
Not quite. 16% are in the government . . . or are lobbyists . . . or are among the wealthy whose interests are represented by lobbyists . . . or have spent their entire lives living in a cave.
Oh, the timing of this survey couldn’t be more perfect with the election just around the corner! Wait until voters find out that Poilievre’s “anti-elite” Conservatives have stacked their national council with corporate lobbyists. Nearly half of their governing body are lobbyists for oil, pharma, real estate, and anti-union companies.
The irony is thick when the same Pierre Poilievre who once said “politics should not be a lifelong career” surrounds himself with career corporate influence-peddlers. Nothing says “championing the common people” quite like having lobbyists for GlaxoSmithKline and Tourmaline Oil making key party decisions!
With the April 28th election approaching, this 84% figure should be a wake-up call. Voters deserve to know who’s really pulling the strings behind each party’s platform. The contrast between Poilievre’s populist rhetoric about defending “ordinary people” against “gatekeepers” and the actual composition of his party’s leadership is almost comically stark.
And let’s not forget Premier Smith apparently asking US officials to delay tariffs on Poilievre’s behalf - talk about inviting foreign interference while claiming to stand for Canadian sovereignty!
Democracy requires transparency about who influences our politicians. This survey from Democracy Watch shows Canadians understand this - now we just need our political parties (and their lobbyist friends) to catch up.
Yes, but the people who would make laws against them are basically ruled by the lobbyists.
Lobbyists can go ahead and do their fundraising work … but then equally distribute all the money they generate across all the official political parties.
The fact that we allow money to determine who gets to have the loudest political voice in our country means that government is controlled by wealth and those with power and not by people … that is a system known as a Plutocracy or Aristocracy or even an Oligarchy.
Once you remove the stranglehold that money and wealth has on our system … then you can call it a Democracy
