CPJ Staff Meet with MP Harold Albrecht

There are many great parts to being a CPJ intern: commenting on recent public policy decisions, learning about the federal political system and writing blogs about current events. One of the best parts of all has been having the opportunity to meet with politicians who are directly involved in the policy-making process.

Two weeks ago, I had the chance to meet with NDP MP Paul Dewar. And last week, I had the opportunity to meet with another federal representative: Conservative MP Harold Albrecht.

Albrecht has been the Member of Parliament for the riding of Kitchener-Conestoga since 2006. He attended CPJ’s Open House event in November 2007, and was also quoted in a Guelph Mercury article about CPJ’s pre-budget workshop on poverty in Kitchener this past January. We followed up with Albrecht regarding the article a few weeks after the workshop, and he kindly extended an invitation to meet with him to discuss our concerns about poverty in Canada.

On Thursday March 12, CPJ’s Executive Director Joe Gunn and I went to visit Albrecht in his office on Parliament Hill. As it was our first time meeting him in person, the afternoon provided a good opportunity for us to discuss CPJ’s recent work on poverty and learn about some of his activities as a Member of Parliament.

In the meeting, we introduced Albrecht to our Dignity for All Campaign and shared details about our campaign objectives with him. We discussed our mutual concern about poverty in Canada and talked about possible methods and policies for reducing it. While we differed at times in our ideas regarding how poverty reduction can be achieved, all three of us expressed a shared commitment to act on the issue.

Albrecht was very open to dialoguing about poverty and shared with us his personal conviction that poverty is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. As the meeting ended, we offered him an invitation to our Dinner for Dignity event in October 2009, which he expressed an interest in attending.

Open listening and discussion are vital to dialogue on any issue, and I left the meeting optimistic that the conversation we began will continue and grow as our Campaign gets underway.