[talus]

I think you are dead on. They know we can't compete due to the low wages in other countries and they can't impose duties on the foreign competitors goods, ie no tarif walls allowed. So they bail them out over a period of time until the industry has dissolved into one or two firms that can make something with not much manpower and no federal taxes owed. Thats why he talks about the high capitalization needs of the firms that are left and how the government has done a wonderful job funding EI(translate: more job losses). <br /> <br /> You might notice as you read the Hansard that everybody seems to be on board with this globalization, even the NDP. That's my sense anyway. Maybe it's resignation on their part. Or overload- there are 1,920 registrations of paid lobbyists in Ottawa. They have to register every six months. They represent oil, pharm, military, you name it, and most of them represent foreign firms or Canadian subs of foreign firms. From reading their CV's, most of the lobbyists are former government mandarins, department heads, Brigader Generals(no kidding), and party hacks. So what you have is a lobbyist meeting with a department head to talk about an issue and the lobbyist could very well have been the fellows senior in government service.I hear Washington is even worse, people have to sneak into meetings and lock the doors behind them so they are not disturbed by lobbyists.<br /> We need a new democracy somewhere far away from the "stakeholders".

[FootPrints]

Talus, when someone lobbies the government, do they have to do it personally or are they allowed to "hire" someone to do it? I was wondering if they are allowed to hide behind someone. It would make for a good web site. Who is lobbying for what....<br /> <br /> But it would only work if we had the name of the actual person and/or company.<br /> <br /> Thanks in advance.

[talus]

Hi, I would love to do one but it's a lot of work if you don't have computer skills and I do not. I would call it "MeetYourLobbyist" or "WhoPaysForDinner?" Great for new MP's on the hill.<br /> <br /> There are two versions: "In house" is a fellow who works for a corp or an organization and it's his job to lobby. An example would be Garry Peterson of William-Lynn-James Inc, Indiana, who is registered to lobby the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and others as they are specialists in cross-border issues for U.S. clients or they may be an employee of Pfizer(for eg) where one of their duties is to lobby or affect Canada's drug policy.<br /> <br /> The other version is called the "consultant". This is the fellow you may have an immediate image of when you think of paid lobbyist. An example would be Harry Webster of CFN Consultants. CV.partial:,Harry T. Webster is retired from the Canadian Government Public Service after nearly 35 years in federal procurement activities primarily on behalf of the Department of National Defence, but also many other Departments including Transport, Fisheries, RCMP and many foreign countries through the Canadian Commercial Corporation.<br /> He is registered to lobby Defence, Government Procurement, Industry, and Regional Development. His clients are SNC TEC,LOCKHEED MARTIN CANADA ,C2 LOGISTICS ,AM GENERAL CORPORATION ,MBDA UK LIMITED,MIL-QUIP INC., and on and on... I'd tell you more but then I'd have to k### you. <img align=absmiddle src='images/smilies/smile.gif' alt='Smile'><br /> <br /> This is legal, legitimate, and registered with the Federal Government. It just takes cutting, pasting, collating and cross-referencing all the data. <br /> <br /> I will supply you with all their names,backgrounds, businesses, who is paying them, who they are lobbying and why if you have XML skills or have access to a program that sorts this kind of information. I could e-mail it to you. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />

[FootPrints]

I found the government site on Lobby Registration. My Goodness!!! I never expected so many.<br /> <br /> Time to take a crash course on web building....<br /> <br />

[talus]

Go for it! It would be a great site for background reference to the politics and business in Canada. I believe the Ontario government registers it's lobbyists too though I don't know where that info is located.

[FootPrints]

I found the Ontario Lobbyists Registration Office site.<br /> <a href="http://lobbyist.oico.on.ca">here</a>

[talus]

That is way better than the scattered info of the federal registrations.