October 21, 2019 is Election Day in Canada.1 If you or your employees
communicate with federal officials, updated guidance on political
activities, preferential access, and gifts could affect your
business. Here's what you need to know about the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct (the
"Code") during the upcoming
election campaign.
Briefly, lobbyists may not put a federal public office holder in
a conflict of interest. The test, according to the Commissioner of
Lobbying (the "Commissioner"), is
whether:
[A]n informed person, viewing the matter realistically and
practically and having thought the matter through, [would] think
that an action taken by a lobbyist has created a sense of
obligation on the part of the public office holder, or a tension
between the public office holder's private interests and the
duty of the public office holder to serve the public
interest[.]
