Today marks an exciting moment on the road to the Canada at 150: Rising to the Challenge conference – we’ve just launched the official conference website at www.can150.ca.

Canada at 150: Rising to the Challenge is about the future.  It is a forward looking non-partisan policy conference taking place in Montreal from March 26-28, 2010. I’m inviting leading thinkers and doers from across Canada and around the world to grapple with what kind of country Canada can be, and should be, when we mark our 150th birthday in 2017.  And to answer the question of what needs to be done today and tomorrow to get there.

This website is your portal to a groundbreaking national conversation about our country’s future, a conversation that seeks new solutions to five challenges facing Canada in the years ahead:

Jobs today and tomorrow

The creative and competitive economy

Real life issues for Canadian families

Energy, environment, economy

A strong presence in the world of 2017

Through this website you can participate in this conversation, before and during the conference – no matter where you live in Canada.

Each week we’ll be publishing discussion papers, blog entries and Your2017 submissions on the website – posts that we invite you to discuss and debate in the comments forum below each article. As Liberal MPs hold Canada at 150 town halls across Canada in February and March, we’ll post event notices – so you can carry on the conversation in person.

On March 26 to 28, every Canadian will have access to the conference through live web stream.  You can watch – and ask questions – from your own computer or attend an event in your area. The Can150.ca website will help you find events near you where people are watching the conference together.  If you’d like to organize and host such an event, register it here on the website so others can join you.  

Canadians care deeply about our country. We need to harness this passion about our future if we are to solve the challenges facing Canadian families, individuals and both rural and urban communities. 

I hope you will add your voice to the conversation – and that you will invite your family, friends and constituents to do the same. That conversation begins here, right now.

Sincerely,
Michael Ignatieff