Thomas Boysen

I am close to retiring as an independent consultant in international development cooperation, where I have worked mainly in Africa for over 30 years. During this time I have gained a lot of experience in strategic planning around rural development as well as in governance at various levels through dealings with municipal, regional and national governments, especially concerning decentralisation. I have lived in Sask since 1991. I joined the GPC 3 years ago, am the CEO of the Regina/Wascana EDA and have served on Federal Council for the last 8 months as Sask rep. During that time I have chaired the Strategic Planning Committee and sit also on the Leadership Contest Committee. I have maintained close contact with the Sask members of GPC through the EDAs and I intend to continue giving regular feedback on what is going on at national level and representing the interests and wishes of the GPC members in Sask. There is much more to do and I would like to continue this work to heal the Party, make it strong and especially, since Federal Council is our governing body, improve the overall governance of the Party towards much improved results in the next election. While the effects of the turmoil we experienced in 2021 still linger, Federal Council has become a much more productive body and continues to improve and I believe I have contributed to these positive changes. However, we need to do more. Our constitution dates form before when there were GPC MPs and has significant gaps that need filling. The link between the federal and EDA levels is too weak and does not ensure the mutual engagement that is need to revitalise the Party at all levels. The current mechanisms of engaging members are not sufficient to mobilise more members to actively take part in the Party's policy development process. Please allow me to continue working on these and many more important issues.