At the federal level, there is no minister responsible for education, and hence no automatic spokesman for education in the cabinet system. Rabinovitch wants to see universities be more proactive. In every department, there are policies and developments that will have an impact upon our community. He also suggested that universities address the concern to mid-level bureaucracies. It's not enough to just send up the president of the university and the chair of the board of governors once in a while.
Senior people open the doors for senior people, but middle levels do a lot of the work.
You work the middle levels to help prepare that briefing before it gets to the minister's desk. Lobbying is now a full time job for universities. Lobby, and lobby continuously. We used to joke, when I was in government, about the people who used to show up once a year, or only when they had a problem. It's a good idea to talk to people when you don't have a problem, in a low pressure environment.