"What Changes To Canada Would Make It Better?"

First and foremost: Clean Up Canada's Lobbying and Ethics Rules Enforcement System

Not all lobbying activities, however, are included in the regulations. For example, in Canada: Lobbyist Registration in Canada, which was posted at SpinWatch, the author indicated that:

There are [...] some activities, which do not require registration, and they include communications essential to public policy making. Common to the federal and provincial jurisdictions, excluded communications include those made in proceedings, which are a matter of the public record such as testimony before legislature or parliamentary committees. Also excluded are submissions made regarding enforcement or interpretation of an Act or Regulation by the particular office holder. Communication contained in submissions made in direct response to written requests from a public office holder for advice or comment are also excluded activities.

I would argue that the public has a right to know who ALL lobbyists are inasmuch as their impact on policy making in the country is real and consequently affects all Canadians.

And that brings me to the second area of concern, i.e. Neocon "think tanks."

More than anything, I believe that neocon think tanks represent the most dangerous feature of Canadian politics. The role of American neocon think tanks in the current demise of that country cannot be overstated. The ones that are in this country are but mere extensions of the former, and at the heart of their mission is the disintegration of Canada and its subsequent integration into the USA.

Many here [...] are already aware of the role of think tanks in the political sphere of Canada. However, some of the comments that I have come across in the Canadian bloggosphere lead me to believe that there is a tendency to dismiss them as "mere nuisance" whereas their impact is more insidious, and the kind of influence that they have within our government (both provincial and federal), even our other institutions (universities, charitable organizations, ...), is very real. Many work below the radar, out of the media’s attention (or deliberately ignored by the media), under pseudo-academic guise, or they influence the policy of this country through the means described in the above quote from SpinWatch.

This comment would be too long were I to go into more details. Anyone interested can access the following topics posted on a site dedicated to the fight against "deep integration" and participate in the discussion:
- Fighting Deep Integration: What We Are Up Against!
- Canadian Think Tank Watch

Two mistakes that liberals and progressives in the US did: they failed to recognize the takeover of the media by the "conservative movement" and secondly, they completely ignored the rise of neocon think tanks in their midst, funded as they were by far-right foundations who funnelled enormous amount of money to them via the system of protection afforded to philanthropic organizations (see also: The Philanthropy Roundtable and the Council for National Policy).

Hence, I would say that regarding this second area of concern, it would be important for Canadians to pay particular attention to how this Neocons-philanthropy linkage is being played here too, via the neocon think tanks.

I am afraid that we ignore at our peril the surreptitious and insidious nature of the power of neocon lobbyists - indeed ALL lobbyists, and neocon think tanks in the policy making of this country, not to mention our media. I am not saying that they should be eliminated – I don't believe that it can be done anyway, but surely there should be proper legislation and regulations put in place to get them to operate in a transparent way such that Canadians whose life they will end up influencing can have some input in the process.

[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on May 4, 2005]