October lobbying: CME lobby day drives 93 communications

My story on Lobby Monitor today looks at the October reports uploaded to the Lobbyist Registry to see who are the top lobby groups for the month, as well as to see who some of the top players in the government have been meeting with. I've never done much work with the lobby registry before, so it was a good challenge to learn how to navigate it, as well as to get in touch with these groups on a tight deadline. It's also a great learning experience about some of those communications on the lobby side of government, and how that works.

2014 Parliamentarian of the Year

I worked on Maclean's Magazine's 2014 Parliamentarian of the Year Awards once again this year, both in the survey process and the final interviews with finalists. While the survey process can be daunting and time-consuming, it's always a good way to get to know MPs who aren't in the spotlight, and one of the best events of the year.

Stop referring to MPs as employees

My column this week on Loonie Politics ventures into the choppy waters of the MP harassment issue on Parliament Hill, and takes on some of the aspects of the debate, and specifically to the point that people keep wondering why MPs don't have a policy that mirrors harassment policies for employees in other workplaces. The problem of course is that MPs aren't employees, and they can't fit into these kinds of schemes that other workplaces can, and I try to explore that issue a little more.

Environmental groups looking for amendments to energy bill C-22 in the Senate

I have my first piece for Lobby Monitor
up today, which was looking bill C-22 as it heads toward the Senate. Unlike most of the reporting on bills that I do, I got to focus on lobby groups and their messages on the bill as opposed to talking to the MPs who are doing the debating. It was an interesting exercise, and a good challenge going forward.

Security needs parliamentary oversight

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at Bill C-622, which proposes to create a parliamentary oversight mechanism for national security agencies in this country. Many of the arguments against this bill have to do with the canard of duplication and bureaucracy, but I show why this really isn't the case in Canada.