John Ruffolo is leading an active drive to start an association for growth-stage startups in Canada and expects the body will be up and running in a few months.

After floating the idea online recently, the CEO of OMERS Ventures has identified a core of about 12 companies committed to funding and organizing such an association. He hopes to attract about eight more backers to launch the group so there are about 20 major Canadian startups as founding companies.

“I haven’t yet found that organization at can speak for the startup community,” said Ruffolo in a phone conversation on Tuesday. “I’m going to complete my various discussions in the next four to six weeks, and if there’s not a group out there then I think we need one.”

Ruffolo emphasized that by “startup” he is not referring to seed-stage companies with a few people. He more accurately means high-growth innovators that have moved beyond the seed stage and are now scaling into significant corporations. He also said the purpose is not to seek government funding for such companies but to ensure they have a single voice that can present their case in policy discussions with government.

The absence of a group to represent the interests of startups came to light in the past two weeks in the response to the New Democratic Party’s campaign promise to change the taxation of stock options.  The measure, aimed at curbing the take-home pay of senior managers in corporations, could also impact the ability of startups to attract talent. Ruffolo raised the matter on the Startup North Facebook page, and CEOs Ryan Holmes of Vancouver-based Hootsuite Media Inc. and Tobi Lutke of Ottawa-based Shopify Inc. wrote the NDP to oppose the move. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair replied there would be an exemption for early-stage companies.

Ruffolo again took up the cause, calling on the startup community in an editorial on the OMERS website and in Betakit to speak with a single voice when dealing with government. Governments want to aid startups, he said, but civil servants and politicians usually don’t know what the community wants.

What was the response? “I was completely overwhelmed with people generally and passionately agreeing with me,” he said. “The thing is a few years ago no one really cared about what startups thought but now they’re extremely interested.”

The Globe and Mail reported today that at one meeting last week BlackBerry Co-Founder Jim Ballsilie warned startup founders that they had to begin to lobby government or get trampled by their larger foreign competitors.

The campaign has led to discussions with several people and the commitments to back such an organization. Ruffolo said there are now a range of programs across the country to help early-stage companies, and they should be maintained. But there is a growing band of companies with significant revenue streams and these companies need to grow into global corporations. The problem, he said, is finding programs and policies that can help these companies to reach global customers, and mounting a lobbying effort to support such policies.

“There is no organization that fits that bill,” he said.

He believes such an organization should not be financed by government, because such a funding arrangement would make it difficult to lobby governments and would over time change its mandate to meet the needs of governments.

Ruffolo declined to name the companies that have already committed to back the organization. He expects before too long it will be looking for an office and searching for an executive director.