A Lobby Machine That Runs On Ethanol
A bill’s passage by MPs this week offers a textbook case of how to maintain support for a contentious policy in Harper’s Ottawa.
Globe and Mail:
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz was launching into his keynote address to the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association convention in Quebec City last December when he paused to acknowledge his hosts.
In particular, he singled out his “good friend,” Robin Speer, the association’s vice-president of regulatory affairs and a key lobbyist for Canada’s ethanol industry.
Mr. Ritz’s warm salutation was more than a formality. Just 15 months earlier, Mr. Speer had been a policy adviser in Mr. Ritz’s office, serving the member of Parliament when he was the chairman of the House of Commons agriculture committee prior to his cabinet appointment. He was also a long-time protégé of Mr. Ritz, having cut his political teeth in the MP’s North Battleford, Sask., constituency office.
In his speech, the minister also tipped his hat to “Kory” – who had recently “moved on to bigger and better things.” Ottawa insiders in the audience knew he was referring to Kory Teneycke. The association’s former president had returned to his partisan roots – he had worked in the Office of the Official Opposition under the Reform Party and the Canadian Alliance – when he took a job as director of research for the Conservative Party.
Mr. Ritz quickly followed up his friendly introduction with some news that ethanol producers had been waiting to hear – and that their lobbyists had been pushing for – since Prime Minister Stephen Harper assumed office nearly two years earlier: The government would be introducing legislation that very day requiring refiners to include 5 per cent ethanol in their gasoline by 2010, ensuring a nationwide market for the biofuel products. Continue reading…
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