The Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada is an officer of the Parliament of Canada established in July 2008 by the Lobbying Act. The Commissioner is appointed by both Houses of Parliament for a term of seven years.

Mandate

The Commissioner of Lobbying's mandate is to ensure transparency of the lobbying of federal public officer holders. This contributes to increasing the confidence Canadians have in the integrity of decision making.

The Commissioner's mandate is threefold:

Any action or policy, even one that's embedded in a law or government regulation, can be changed, diluted, or eliminated in the future because of inattention or a determined opponent's action. Although the need to address your issue may have been accepted as one  the tide of public opinion could turn tomorrow, and you could find that your support has drifted away.

When to it comes to public policy advocacy, associations often have a difficult time to keep members actively involved in important day-to-day issues. They struggle to activate busy professionals who can be difficult to motivate without a timely issue or crisis at hand. In order to be successful in their advocacy efforts, associations need to reach a critical mass of members.  

Increasing membership engagement

Trump’s message resonates with voters who have felt ignored and are tired of politics as usual. His fans know America isn’t as respected as it was and should be. They fear their kids and grandkids won’t live as well as they have. They know that failure to cut deficits and the National Debt, and control the border means economic and social chaos. Voters are openly hostile. They see in Trump a successful, straight-talking, pro-U.S. executive who gets things done -- things they want done. Millions of Americans believe that both major parties work against them and their interests.

Some European companies are ready to seize business opportunities Iran. Iran is the second-largest economy in the Middle East-North Africa region after Saudi Arabia with an estimated nominal GDP of $ 397 bn in 2015. Iran has the second largest population in the Middle East with around 80 million people. Over 60% are estimated to be under 30 years and the workforce is highly educated.

EU trade with Iran currently stands at around $ 8 bn and is expected to quadruple in the next 2 years.

Dominik Meier, Vorsitzender der Degepol, hat jüngst einen Vorschlag gemacht, der es sicher verdient, weiter diskutiert zu werden. In Anlehnung an die Institution des Wehrbeauftragten des Deutschen Bundestags soll die Einsetzung eines Interessenbeauftragten beim Bundestag für mehr Transparenz bei der politischen Interessenvertretung sorgen. Nachdem die Debatte um ein verpflichtendes Lobbyregister bislang keine greifbaren Ergebnisse erbracht hat, soll dieser Vorschlag neue Dynamik in diese Diskussion bringen.

Rationale

Within a trade association or professional society’s membership, the disenfranchised are also referred to as the grumblers, the fringe, the disconnected, the malcontent, and the contrarians. How do you reel in the self-exiled members before they quit your organization? Asking the questions below will cause an honest discussion around the topic of member engagement.

1. Do you know what really matters to the disconnected members and have you attempted to deliver what they want?  

One of the most visible activities of professional membership organizations are legislative or public policy advocay efforts. This Professional Practice Statement is provided as a management tool for associations and individual association professionals and recommended as a means to achieve excellence in managing associations and other not-for-profit organizations.

Background 

Associations engage in government relations, public policy, and advocacy activities for a variety of reasons. These activities can enable an association to:

Identifying the problems and the policy issues

1. What is the issue to be addressed?
2. Why is it important and to whom?
3. Does this problem have a policy dimension?
4. What current policies reinforce the problem?
5. What changes in policies could lead to improvement? Who is responsible for those policies?

Defining the advocacy goal
 

Advocacy is the active support of an idea or cause expressed through strategies and methods that influence the opinions and decisions of people and organisations. The aims of advocacy are to create or change policies, laws, regulations, distribution of resources or other decisions and to ensure that such decisions lead to implementation.