WPIRG

There are now 21 PIRGs in Canada and over one hundred PIRGs in the United States. PIRGs were inspired by U.S. consumer advocate and corporate watchdog Ralph Nader and first established in 1970.

WPIRG is a voluntary member of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group which is a provincial charitable non-profit corporation whose membership is comprised of eleven PIRGs in Ontario. The purpose of OPIRG is to provide training, support, and foster cooperation between PIRGs whether on an issue or on something as mundane as how to write policies and procedures. Often there are people at other PIRGs working on similar issues and volunteers who take the time to compare strategies and initiatives can find that this sometimes leads to very successful collaborative work. OPIRG also tries to assist students who attempt to organize new PIRG chapters at their own school.

There are a number of times when people from the Ontario PIRGs meet: two issue-focused networking meetings per year that bring together similar Action Groups from across the province to share their experiences and brainstorm new ideas; the Eastern & Western Ontario Public Interest School (PIS) focuses on training volunteers in skills such as using the Web, video production, and how to run a campaign to name a few; finally, the OPIRG Board Training School (BTS) in the Fall of each year provides training for volunteers who are, or want to be, PIRG board members.

At each PIRG and at OPIRG-Provincial, ideas flow from the bottom up. In this sense, each PIRG focuses on issues that are chosen by their volunteers and relevant to their community.