You asked an interesting question last night.

You asked an interesting question last night. You asked me what I wanted to do with the Federal wing of the party. My disillusionment is growing rapidly.

My best position would be Communications Director for the Federal party. At the very least the Chair of the Communications for the GPC. The latter would be the worse case scenario.

Canada's voters have stayed away from the polls in droves (as have Albertan's in provincial elections) and that is where the potential of the Green Party of Canada lies. In a study done by Canada's Chief Electoral Officer the people who do not vote, have never voted, or stopped voting have a variety of reasons. The consensus of those opinions boil down to three themes. The current politicians have no vision, look or act all the same, or do not represent the views of the voters.

It is my contention that the Green Party of Canada has glimmers of vision, and glimmers of innovative ideas and policies, but we do not have a communications plan that represents the new reality of communications in Canada, nor to attract the disillusioned voters to us. We do have the tire kickers looking at us, sniffing around us, but no plan to bring them into the fold.

Especially when you want to talk to the people under 35.

The party has $1.4 million. The party has at least four or five people all working in the communications area, yet the party has no media profile, nor a web site that reflects a comprehension of the new realities of communications in Canada and the big world, nor a communications strategy to help the regions.

We do have reasons for not having that media profile being proffered. None are legitimate.

The party reaped the benefits of having a talented leader putting the party on the political map in the last election, but have since managed to have that position erased since. The party now needs to decide whether they want to start to play for real or just sit on the sidelines and whine about what could have been. It will take heart to play the game of political communications or politics period with the big boys and girls.

Since there is no budget document open to the membership to see where the money that the party is receiving is going, nor a report of any kind to see the progress of the secret and unknown communications strategy, it is very difficult to know what is going on, and what is being achieved. This makes it difficult to make certain assumptions.

With 32 years of experience in all things political, communications, media and government relations, social activism of all sorts, and the 18 hours a day I spend in this area for my living, I can only base my assumptions on educated guesses and experience.

I can tell you that with a Google or Yahoo search, there is very little mention of the Green Party of Canada in the media.

On the other hand there is a rich collection of issues and policies that the Green Party of Canada and grab on to and build a public agenda on.

My plan will include moulding in the experiences I have learned in when I started my education in 1973 working at the start of Greenpeace and political communications for the future for what we need now.

I see the Communications Director as someone who will build a web of communicators through the country, educate them, and then supply them with the information and tools to tell their story and the story of the Green Party from the ground up.

Did you know we can have that same communications person as a part of the media scrums asking questions? Asking the questions of the politicians in front of the media, so we can work to turn the media's attention to our issues and the Green Party.

We need one person in Ottawa doing nothing but monitoring the business of Parliament, and working to put us on the media and political agenda, through new and old media.

Ever read the Party's newsletter? Ever see anything in it to tell us what is going on in Ottawa, and what we should be taking an interest in, in the regions?

In the regions I would hire part-time students or whomever to monitor the news in the regions to be used to feed in to the communications plan, and find out the reactions to what Ottawa is doing, and use that to form some of the plan of the person in Ottawa. These people can be assigned a piece of the Ottawa scene to monitor via the internet and CPAC. They can supply such information for the formal part of the web site's media and communications area, and through blogs.

The evolvement of the virtual world means we can have a Communications Director not headquartered in Ottawa, but anywhere. We have that now, but it is ineffective and has failed. It means we should have a Communications Director that is out and about teaching the various regions how to get their message out, and in fact helping them get their message out with the star power of Jim Harris.

Why do we not see Jim or the Deputy Leaders commenting on the budget, on bills before the House, or anything to do with Parliament? We can do this in a positive and innovative way. This is but a small part of my plan but an integral part.

Mike Nickerson the Ontario GPC representative has an interesting concept which he is floating. It is called Grass Roots Communications Network which is much like what the Greenpeace group started with. It involves in part, a web based inventory be made of articles, cartoons, speakers and information sources (web sites, books, audio visual programs, workshop formats and other communications techniques), that can be used in a community context, and that a staff position be assigned to collect such communications media and encourage their use.

Anyways that is my idea, for what it is worth. The above also can be used to base the Provincial Party's plan for the next election. Both wings of the Party have two more elections until they can either be in the House of Commons or Alberta Legislature in a real and meaningful way.

The possibilities are with in our reach.

Remember, Ralph Klein is Premier because he got about 27% of the popular vote.

Remember, there is only 2% points between Paul Martin's minority government and the three majority governments that Jean Chrétien enjoyed.