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As spotted by Queen’s Park Briefing’s John McGrath, former premier Dalton McGuinty has in the last few days registered to lobby the Ontario government on behalf of Desire2Learn. That’s a Kitchener company that makes a way of delivering lessons and doing group work online, with various ways for teachers and parents to monitor what’s going on. Also adaptable for postsecondary and business settings. The company calls its product Brightspace.

McGuinty’s gig as a “special adviser” with Desire2Learn became known about a month ago. TVO’s Steve Paikin described the job then as to “bring a ‘public policy mindset’ to [Desire2Learn’s] activities, help the company wade through the political challenges, then open doors for Desire2Learn all over the world.”

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Some cursory Googling around finds that Brightspace seems really popular in Alberta but it’s used across the country, including at Lakehead and Laurentian and some Ontario school boards.

Ontario has a one-year “cooling-off period” for former cabinet ministers (including the premier), during which they can’t lobby for “contracts or benefits” for themselves or others. McGuinty is well past that, having resigned as premier in February 2013 and as an MPP that June.

dreevely@ottawacitizen.com

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