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Your elected representatives can be your biggest ally — they can help connect you to community groups, and more.

Buuuuutt……. 😉 Once your Infusion Weekend gathers attention, you’ll get a lot more interest from local elected representatives. The mayor. The local councillors. Provincial representatives (ie MLAs, MPPs or MNAs). Your MP(s). The federal cabinet minister whose riding includes part of your community. The candidate who is running against the MP. The provincial minister of tourism.

While you can run your Infusion however you want, we definitely feel we benefitted by keeping the event explicitly non-political, and keeping the number of speeches from elected representatives to a minimum.

In fact, in 2026, we only permitted one: The Premier. All the others were welcome to join him on the podium for the photo op they’ll want, but he was the only one who got to speak.

In 2025, the Infusion weekend happened 2 days before a federal election. In 2026 it took place amidst a victory lap about US healthcare worker recruitment… Throughout both (and the healthcare infusion movement) we chose to keep the Infusion Weekend as a celebration of what’s great about our city and province, and a welcome to our visitors - that is to say, not about politics.

Some suggestions:

• Strict 10-minute total cap on speeches. Not 10 minutes per politician. Ten minutes total. Across all of them, combined.
• Organizer-only intros. A member of your core team introduces the speakers. The speakers do not introduce each other, do not introduce a "surprise additional speaker," and do not extend their time by deferring to the next person.
• No microphone for surprise speeches. Politicians who were not on the schedule do not get the microphone. If they want to talk, they can mingle and meet visitors like everyone else. The microphone is yours, and only invited speakers use it.
• Speeches before the photo, not after. Once the photo is done, people start chatting within minutes and there won’t be a chance to interrupt them afterwards!
• Brief them in advance. Send each speaker a written note explaining their time limit (90 seconds is realistic if you have multiple speakers fitting into 10 minutes), what topics are appropriate, and what topics are not (remind them that this is not a political rally, and that most people attending will be from out of town). Include in the note that the cap is firm and that you will cut them off if they go over.
• Avoid axes to grind! It’s hard to build an engaging movement when people take sides or get unnecessarily political. Focus on the things that you, your community and your potential visitors value and what makes your community great.

Au sujet des Politiciens

Vos élus pourraient être vos plus grands alliés – ils peuvent vous mettre en communication avec des groupes communautaires et d’autres.

Cependant… 🙂 Une fois la curiosité du publique piquée, la fin-de-semaine de votre Infusion attirera beaucoup plus d’intérêt de la part de vos représentants locaux. Les représentants provinciaux (MAN/MLA, MP ou PM). Un ministre du cabinet fédéral dont la circonscription inclus une partie de votre communauté. Le candidat qui se présente contre votre MNA. Le ministre provincial du tourisme.

Malgré le fait que vous êtes libres de conduire votre Infusion comme bon vous semble, nous sommes convaincus que la nôtre a bénéficiée d’avoir été menée de façon apolitique et du fait d’avoir tenu le nombre de discours d’élus au minimum.