Education is not advocacy.

• Author: Cirtwill, Charles
• Position: Think Tank - Column

I had a fascinating meeting several years ago with the then-finance minister of New Brunswick. The meeting has come to mind often in the past two years as I travel about Northern Ontario and explain to people the difference between a think-tank and an advocacy group. Or, at least, the difference between the Northern Policy Institute and the research branch for the "Northern lobby."

The minister's name was Blaine Higgs. Higgs was an accomplished fellow before entering politics and had a well-earned reputation for frankness. His staff had asked me to meet with him to explain the relative merits of consumption versus income taxes. New Brunswick was at the time (and still is for that matter) struggling to find a tax mix that would both allow them to support needed programs but also encourage private investment and economic growth.

Higgs started the meeting in vintage Higgs style. He asked me: "So, what do you want?" To which I replied, "Nothing." The minister was nonplussed.

EVERYONE who meets with the minister wants something: everyone knows that, right? Well, wrong. As I explained to Higgs, my job is to educate people about policy: Ministers, opposition politicians, bureaucrats, partisans, donors, the general public. Whoever wants to learn, I, and my team and people like us across the country and around the world, are there to teach.

If you don't want to learn or you don't want to apply what you have learned, or if you think you have nothing to learn, or we have nothing to teach you, that's your business.

I was there to try and help answer his questions. If he didn't have any, then I could be on my way. That, in a nutshell, is the difference between education (which is what Northern Policy Institute does) and advocacy (which is what your local chamber, local union, local "save the X" society does).

Here are some basic rules of thumb for you to be able to differentiate between educators and advocators. The rules are not perfect, and sheep in wolves clothing abound, and vice versa. But they are a start.

One, advocates ask to meet with you. Educators don't. You have to invite them to talk to you. You have to want to hear what they have to say. You have to have questions that you hope they can help you answer.

Two, advocators are singularly interested in what is best for them (or their clients) and only secondarily...