National Dialogue on Canada's Futures - Turning Hope into Action in a Turbulent Age

The National Dialogue on Canada’s Futures will engage one million Canadians in productive, community-directed conversations about our common challenges, the positive futures we can imagine for Canada as we address these challenges, and the pathways we can follow to make those futures real. 

The challenge and opportunity
A convergence of powerful forces—including climate change and increasingly extreme weather, the COVID-19 pandemic, widening structural inequalities, and the decline of Canada’s forest and fishery resources—is upending livelihoods and communities across Canada and tearing at our social fabric. 
As a nation, we are also struggling to navigate the rapidly unfolding energy transition demanded of us. Our casual conversations are flooded with growing awareness of historical wrongs, contemporary crises, and a future that looks to be filled with climate, economic, and social distress. 

What is needed now is a NEW conversation that gives people the opportunity to better understand their own beliefs, find empathy with others, and explore how their core values direct us all towards particular futures. People need the opportunity to step outside of their echo chambers and work collectively to figure out how we will face our extraordinary challenges together. 

An urgent conversation on Canada’s futures
In response to our critical situation, the Dialogue will invite one million diverse voices into a Canada-wide conversation made up of structured in-person community conversations, catalytic contributions from thought leaders and artists, and well-moderated online participation. It will create space for us to boldly think through possible futures together and to sketch out pathways, policies, and concrete strategies for creating our most desired Canada. Participants will draw connections between their present choices and the futures those choices may create, while learning from others with diverse experiences and priorities.