Lobby Is No Hobby
Lobbyists are people who hang around in the antechambers of politicians and other influential figures. They have a mission and above all a goal: to reach the influential.
And to represent the wishes of those who hired them. Lobbyists are representatives.
And who invented it? No, this time the Swiss and their inventive spirit are not responsible for lobbying. The origin of all lobbying is the petition — and the right to exercise it. The idea behind it was that subjects could present a request to their ruler. It says as much in the Magna Carta of 1215 and in the English Bill of Rights. So this hierarchically defined model of a supplicant is a basic right.
Now the motivated historian naturally asks: did something like a lobby already exist eight hundred and eleven years ago? No, it did not. Or the forecourt, the waiting room, was called something else. “Laubia” — Latin for arbour. A waiting space under an open roof. The word already knows what it’s about. The term “lobby” only appeared nearly two hundred years ago in the United States. Not in Washington — that would have been too obvious. In Albany, in the capital of the state of New York, the term “lobby agent” surfaced from somewhere and from someone. And stayed.
There is an old legend about the name lobbyist. Ulysses S. Grant, former President of the United States, was supposedly besieged by petitioners in the foyer of the Willard Hotel in Washington while enjoying a cognac. Whereupon Ulysses is said to have exclaimed: “these damned lobbyists.” A fine story, but one that will only ever pass as legend.
Lobbyists as a profession are not confined to one country. They are to be found everywhere. That said, the regulations for lobbyists in Canada are considered fairly strict. The rules in Switzerland are regarded as the most lax among the western democracies.
When I worked as a designer for a Member of Parliament here in Ottawa, there was a note on her office door: “Lobbyists are not welcome here.”
Yesterday, Environmental Defence published its annual analysis of the Canadian lobbying registry. The report documents activities between May 2024 and April 2025. Several journalists noticed how many oil and gas lobbyists were moving through political circles. Representatives of the oil industry met with government officials at least five times every day, amounting to 1,318 visits. Prime Minister Carney met with oil and gas representatives 14 times. The previous Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, had admitted the same representatives only twice.
Well, these lobbyists have a right of access, because that is what the law says. The higher number of active players from oil and gas is merely somewhat noticeable. After all, we are all, in this globalised world, caught up in a climate crisis that is growing dramatically more acute.
But that is not the most troubling part in itself. According to Environmental Defence, Energy Minister Tim Hodgson met with oil industry lobbyists 83 times. Yet all requests from environmental experts were simply turned down. That, at any rate, is what Environmental Defence reports.
And that feels unsettling. Because lobbyists represent the interests of companies and institutions, and they are meant to get a hearing with the powerful in politics. When only one side is let in, lobbying is no longer a right. It is bouncer politics.
Lobby is no hobby. It stands as a right in the founding law of the land.
