The Human Condition: Lobbyists

By Daniel Schnee on October 26, 2022.

We hear about them all the time in the news. Lobbyists: people who get paid to influence politicians or government organizations. Most often, they represent either corporations, or other governments. If successful their advocacy can lead to expanded legislation that works more in their favour, or even new laws themselves that align more favourably with their interests. Lobbying very often works for the benefit of society, but we citizens tend to focus on its more negative aspects: how big business and foreign governments can use lobbying to gain advantage at the expense of average Canadians.

Petitioning the government as such is a legal right of all Canadians, and in a sense this is what we do through voting, writing letters to our MLAs, and so on. But a strange thing occurred at the UCP Annual General Meeting this last weekend when party members voted in favor of Resolution 14, which would ask all councillors, administration and staff from municipalities to register as political lobbyists when they deal with provincial matters.

The reason this is so strange is because councillors, administration and the staff of various governmental offices across the province engage in a wide variety of communications, both formal and informal. If, for example, I went to a political conference and happened to end up conversing about political science in general with my old friend David Shepherd (Edmonton City-Center MLA), this could qualify as “lobbying,” since I may write about the experience in this column and thus be considered a “consultant lobbyist” who was “paid” by Shepherd (i.e. “the NDP”) … if he picked up the tab for lunch. At its worst, it could also be considered bribery, even though merely a kind, apolitical gesture. This kind of legislation would monitor (and possibly censure) informal conversation as overt political action. That is not democratic.

Plus, it delegitimizes the actual job requirements of our elected officials, as if doing what we have asked of them is merely “lobbying” … rather than holding them accountable for the job they do in office. MLA Drew Barnes is accountable to us voters, while corporations and corporate lobbyists are not.

Lumping us all together practically legitimizes various industries as a kind of voting block, rather than a set of highly predatory corporations seeking endless profit. We then give voice to these lobbyists as a kind of tacit political “party,” who represent the “votes” of their shareholders; the literal privatization of government itself. How safe would our democracy be if our nation’s main political parties made economically benefiting their voters alone their explicit goal?

Thankfully this idea currently stands as a mere UCP resolution, and would still need to be debated and passed by the provincial government to have any real effect. In fact it is almost a blessing that the UCP voted in favor of this vague and ludicrous idea, as it reveals to us all yet more of the UCP’s bad decision-making and irrationality before our upcoming election(s).

Once again we have received a heads-up on another bad idea coming down the chute from the UCP, and that is not just me trying to lobby for another party. It is what I always try to do … lobby for a little bit of good old common sense.

Dr. Daniel Schnee is an anthropologist and jazz/rock drummer.

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