From Commons to railway boss: MP Merv Tweed’s move a taste of U.S.-style lobby culture

Some Canadians wring their hands periodically about creeping Americanization of this country, even though there are still plenty of things that set us apart.

But here's one thing we should hope doesn't migrate across the border: the habit of elected politicians leaving public office and walking straight into lucrative lobbying or executive jobs.

That's why Democracy Watch is questioning the resignation of Manitoba Conservative MP Merv Tweed at the end of this month to become president immediately of the railway company Omnitrax Canada Inc.

U.S.-controlled Omnitrax operates the Hudson Bay Railway that connects many isolated northern Manitoba communities, the Winnipeg Free Press reports.

It also runs the Port of Churchill, on Hudson Bay, which was a major grain export point until Ottawa dismantled the Canadian Wheat Board. The railway now hopes to start shipping western crude oil through the port as early as this fall.

[ Related: Manitoba MP quits, takes top job at rail company ]

Until last fall, Tweed chaired the Commons transportation committee, which often dealt with railway issues, the Free Press noted. He went on to chair the Commons agriculture committee.

According to the Free Press, the federal Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying's web site revealed Omnitrax lobbyist Leo Duguay, himself a former Manitoba Progressive Conservative MP, contacted Tweed last November about agriculture, infrastructure and transportation issues.

While cabinet ministers must wait two years to work for a company with which they've had "direct and significant official dealings," no such rule applies to backbench MPs.

Former MPs can't become registered lobbyists for five years, the Free Press noted. But as Omnitrax's boss, he's allowed to lobby his former colleagues as long as it amounts to less than 20 per cent of his duties as president.

"He's allowed to lobby anyone he wants in the government, 20 per cent of his time, with no cooling-off period, not even one minute," Democracy Watch founding director Duff Conacher told the Free Press.

"On Sept. 1, he can call the prime minister or anyone on the committee he sat with."

However, Tweed saw no conflict, adding he'd been considering a move to the private sector for a couple of months. His work as chairman of the transportation committee actually made him "less fearful" of taking a job in that industry, he told the Free Press.

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Democracy Watch co-ordinator Tyler Sommers told The Canadian Press that Tweed's transportation two-step would not have been possible if the Harper government had implemented recommendations made by the Commons ethics committee last year.

Among other things, it would have prohibited former politicians from lobbying government right after they resign, he said.

According to OpenSecrets.org, dozens of former congressional representatives and senators work on Washington's K Street, home to the U.S. capital's massive lobbying sector. Many walk straight into jobs lobbying their former colleagues.

United Republic, a U.S. democracy watchdog, reports there were 13,688 registered lobbyists in Washington in 2009. One out of two retiring members of Congress and the Senate become lobbyists today, compared with three per cent in the 1970s, the group says.