Skip to Content

Suggestions for meeting with your Member of Parliament

Meeting face-to-face with your Member of Parliament is the best way to share your point of view with him or her.

Before the meeting:

  • Call the MP’s constituency office and ask for a meeting. You may have to wait several weeks for an appointment.
  • Plan ahead. Do your research on the issue that you wish to present. Find out your MP’s stance on this issue. Plan your questions and follow-up. Gather materials that you will wish to share.
  • Take a small group of like-minded people with you. Three or four is usually the optimum size of group. Identify one as the group spokesperson and another as note-taker.

 

At the meeting:

  • Smile, relax, get comfortable. Mention mutual friends or acquaintances.
  • Identify the issue that you wish to raise.
  • The spokesperson should take the lead, but all members of the group should speak.
  • Be persistent but polite.  
  • Ask what action the MP is prepared to take on your issue. Ask for follow-up

 

After the meeting:

  • Send a letter of thanks to the MP. Include a summary of the understandings or commitments made.
  • If the meeting was unsatisfactory in its outcome, arrange another meeting in six months.
  • Share information with other groups or the media, as appropriate.

 

Adapted from “Meeting with Your Member of Parliament,” www.kairoscanada.org