Brantford-Brant Chamber of Commerce is gearing up to host its 17th annual MP and MPP Breakfast in Brantford on Friday, February 28, 2025.
David Prang, CEO for the Brantford-Brant Chamber of Commerce, said that during the event, the MP and MPP of the day for Brantford-Brant will partake in an hour-long moderated, facilitated discussion with the Chamber President, John Oddi.
“The MP and the MPP are given topics in advance, and those topics are generated by our Advocacy Committee, which is composed of Chamber members, volunteers and board members, as well as just general volunteers that are interested in the political aspects of the community,” said Prang. “They’re topical questions that are both provincial and federal in nature; there’s often areas of overlap between provincial responsibility and federal responsibility, and the Advocacy Committee attempts to create questions and themes that that both our provincial and federal elected representatives can answer.”
Prang said that while the Chamber president would be tasked with asking the questions throughout the discussion in the past, this year the Chamber is taking a different approach.
“Typically, we would come up with some themes and between myself and the president, we would get the questions drafted and finalized, however this year, we’re asking the members of the Advocacy Committee, led by the Chair Elizabeth Lorenzin, to both draft the questions, and to take responsibility for asking them as well,” said Prang. “So John’s role as the moderator of the event will be more to keep the MP and the MPP on task, and the questions will be generated and asked by the Advocacy Committee members themselves, live from the audience. It gives the committee members a little bit more skin in the game, so to speak, because they’re going to be the ones asking the questions, and they’re topical to their areas of interest like perhaps transportation or cost of living.”
He added that as Wilfrid Laurier University, Conestoga College and Six Nations Polytechnic are this year’s event sponsors, the Chamber is also giving the students in attendance an opportunity to ask questions as well.
“We’re excited to offer some of the schools’ students the opportunity to craft and ask a question themselves, and have a table at the event,” said Prang. “So not only will the post-secondary institutions have the opportunity to share their experience and share what they’re doing, but we’re also going to offer their student leaders the opportunity to get engaged with the event as well so it’s pretty neat.”
Prang said that given the uncertainty surrounding both provincial and federal election dates, it could mean potential changes to programming.
“The event will go on regardless of what the electoral situation is, unless, by some magic factor, we end up having two elections happening at the same time, then that would be a different event altogether,” he said. “If both levels of government are still sitting then the event will proceed as is, but if it does change then we’ll have to pivot a bit. Federal wise, it should be locked in at least until the Liberals have elected someone, but if there’s a provincial decision to hold an early election, then that might impact the event.”
He then added that this year, the Chamber will also be welcoming Dan Muys, who’s the current MP for Flamborough-Glanbrook, to introduce himself to attendees.
“When the federal election does occur, the new expanded riding will actually be Flamborough-Glanbrook-Brant North, which will include the towns of Paris and St. George,” said Prang. “So with that in mind, MP Muys has already been active in the community and we’re going to offer him the opportunity to share a few words and introduce himself to the group. He won’t be on stage as far as the debate this time but we’ll have him there for an introduction.”
He added that the event, which is open to both members of the Chamber and non-members, is a great chance for the business community to hear from the MP and MPP on certain topics.
“It really offers the business community a direct opportunity to hear from our elected representatives in terms of how they’re improving the environment of doing business and improving the quality of life in Brantford-Brant, and it does offer the chance to hear about the broader things that our MP and MPP do as well,” said Prang.
Overall, Prang said that himself and the rest of the Chamber are looking forward to the event.”
“We’re already about half-way sold out and we just opened it up last week so it’s definitely popular this year,” he said. “I’m not sure that in the 17 years we’ve been hosting this event that we’ve had the potential for both a federal election and a provincial election in the same year so this is certainly a very unique opportunity for a lot of people.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
