As the new council works on planning priorities and budget for 2007, I'd like to encourage them to consider what they can do to foster policy development.  As outlined in my roadmap essay I consider establishing a successful policy development process to be one of the five key building blocks necessary for our long-term success.

Over the past couple of years many GPC members likely became familiar with a "3M" organizational structure promoted by David Scrymgeour:  that is, we should focus our efforts on the areas of membership, message, and money.  I believe that the training and tools put together by David to support 3M are very useful and have helped many EDAs increase their effectiveness.

One of the things that prompted me to write the roadmap essay were some thoughts about how the 3M strategy could be modified to better reflect and support the GPC organization at the national level.  In particular, there is no clear place for policy development in 3M.  This is unfortunate since our policy defines who and what we are.  Here is the first part of Article 4 of the GPC constitution: 

Article 4 - Purpose:  It is the purpose of The Party to advance The Party’s platform, policy, values and basis of unity, and to contribute to the welfare of Canada, Canadians and the community of life in Canada ...

I think it is difficult to figure out where policy fits into the 3M because, as the above paragraph makes clear, the purpose of the party as a whole is significantly different than the purpose of non-political organizations (or even local EDAs).  In any case, here is the link to the section in the essay where I discuss how policy development can be integrated into 3M.

In order to ensure our long-term success, the central party and council need a plan to ensure that policy development is fostered in the same way that a plan is needed for the 3M activities. Note that I am not suggesting that council work on policy itself.  That is the job of Shadow Cabinet and interested members. But council should ensure that planning, processes, procedures, resources, etc are in place in the same way that they are put in place to support 3M activities.

Elizabeth May understands the importance of policy development and that is why one of the first things she did was initiate her cross-Canada policy series, an idea which I strongly support.  In 2007, we need to expand on this idea by ensuring that enough resources are in place whereby the nitty-gritty details of policy can be developed on an ongoing basis.  In 2004, a Wiki was used, but it eventually started to suffer abuses.  With some effort, these problems can likely be corrected and complemented by other vehicles that allow all interested party members to engage in the policy development process.