The Lobbying Handbook
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Contacting Elected Officials Phone,
mail, or email While meeting face-to-face with elected officials is best, there are also other ways you can have an impact. Write a letter, keeping in mind that your own individually-crafted letter is much better than a form letter produced by someone else. Phone calls are good too. People in public office keep track. Attempt to talk with your own MPP by phone if you can. After that, you may also want to phone a minister or a leading member of one of the opposition parties. In practice, you may end up dealing with an executive assistant to the person you’re calling. That’s all right. Just remember to ask that they get back to you in writing with a clear statement of their position or the action they plan to take about your concerns. Emails or faxes are good too. Nowadays they can sometimes work even better than phone calls or letters. You can get the phone number, fax number mailing address and email address for your member of provincial parliament (MPP) by calling (416) 326-1234 or by visiting www.ontla.on.ca and clicking on members. The Minister of Education is Elizabeth Witmer. Her phone number is: (416) 325-2929. Her fax number is: (416) 325-2608. And her email address is: elizabeth_witmer@ontla.ola.org The education critics for the opposing parties in the legislature are Gerard Kennedy (Liberal) and Rosario Marchese (NDP). The Leader of the Official Opposition in the Ontario Legislature is Dalton McGuinty. The leader of the NDP is Howard Hampton. The websites for the Liberal, NDP and Green parties are: |