The Lakehead Model: Playing Chess With Lobbying Power

When we think of university lobbying, we often picture a transactional, back-room process: administrators asking politicians for money. However, an in-depth analysis of Lakehead University’s Orillia Campus operations reveals a far more sophisticated and effective strategy. It’s not simple lobbying; rather, the university has created a masterclass in public-sector advocacy, built on deep structural integration that has yielded millions in funding and secured the university’s central role in the region's future. 

This strategy isn’t "aggressive" in the classic sense, but it is methodical, professionalised, and exceptionally successful. Lakehead University’s advocacy is no small effort; it’s an institutionalized function. The university operates a formal “Office of Government Relations” with a stated public mandate to facilitate “advocacy between the university and various levels of government” and influence the “public policy and legislative landscape” This is backed by formal, on-the-books action. Lakehead has been a registered federal lobbyist for nearly two decades, using both in-house staff and, in the past, external consultants. The University President oversees this activity, and the list of registered in-house lobbyists includes the “interim Principal, Lakehead Orillia Campus.”

This critical detail shows that advocacy is a core responsibility delegated directly to the Orillia campus leadership. Now, it’s important to note that many universities lobby. However, Lakehead’s approach to its “asks” is highly strategic. For instance, while its Thunder Bay campus lobbies for specific infrastructure like the Gichi Kendaasiwin Centre, the Orillia campus’s viability is directly tied to the federal lobbying effort to create “region-specific policies” mitigating the new international student cap. This is a crucial defensive action to protect the campus’s growth model, which is heavily reliant on international student revenue.

The University's strategy avoids partisan alignment. Instead, it adopts a multi-partisan “solutions-based advocacy”. Its “ideology” is one of institutional alignment, which allows the university to focus on strategic goals while playing into the government set economic goals. This is most evident in the Orillia-specific strategy, which takes an approach of not lobbying officials, but rather lobbying with them. There are three specific ideas which evidence this. 

The first is the university's “Formal Advocacy Pacts.” In 2019, Lakehead signed a formal memorandum of understanding with the city of Orillia. This pact explicitly committed both parties to collaborate on advocacy with other levels of government. Effectively turning the city into the university's lobbying party. The second idea is that of integrated planning; the university created the “President's Advisory Council on Economic Development” for Simcoe County. This council’s membership includes the very officials Lakehead needs to influence, such as the County of Simcoe's Director of Economic Development and the City of Orillia’s Manager of Economic Development. Through the “President's Advisory Council on Economic Development” council, the university’s “asks” are reframed as essential parts of the region's own economic strategy. The third major idea is simple yet highly effective. Lakehead effectively uses whatever power it has to reward its political champions. For example, in 2024, it awarded former Orillia mayor Steve Clarke the Civitas Award. The university was transparent in its reasoning, publicly citing his “strong lobbying activities for provincial government support” of the university. It’s clear what the university is communicating with these actions: if you advocate for Lakehead, you are compensated. 

These methods have clearly worked; there's a pattern emerging of transformative funding. In April of 2022, the university announced its partnership with Georgian College worth $2.56 million. In 2025, the  “President's Advisory Council on Economic Development”, in tandem with the regional governments, led to a $15 million commitment from Simcoe County to “seed the expansion of Lakehead’s Orillia campus with a new building”. And the largest win to date could be given to the “historic announcement” in May of 2025. This being a new, multi-million dollar Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital, which will be built on Lakehead’s campus. This again can be contributed to the admittedly smart call by the university to sign a formal memorandum of understanding with the hospital in 2023 to “engage in discussions around… collaborative long term planning.” These wins for the university create a self perpetuating growth loop, the hospital's construction can justify the university expanding in its student body, which in turn will provide the skilled labor needed to supply the hospital and region. I would also predict that in the coming years, further partnerships regarding programming and further expansion will come because of this self-perpetuating growth loop.

So what does this tell us? It tells us that Lakehead Orillia’s success comes down to how it positions itself and its collaborative nature. And it’s my opinion that more institutions, municipalities, and even politicians should take a page from the Orillia campus’s book on how to collaborate effectively and build a future.