This is a conversation series by Donna Kennedy-Glans, a writer and former Alberta cabinet minister, featuring newsmakers and intriguing personalities.

“The dairy lobby is the National Rifle Association of Canada,” proclaims Martha Hall Findlay, former Liberal MP and now head of the University of Calgary’s school of public policy. Her ballpark estimate is that the dairy industry in Canada spent upwards of $100 million a year to lobby for and market dairy over a decade ago, making them “the wealthiest and most influential lobby in the country.”