The Canadian International Council worked hard to pull off Foreign Policy by Canadians, alongside CanWaCH and Global Canada. In 2021, we brought together 444 Canadians and found out how they felt about big issues like global health, security, dignity and prosperity.

We briefed them on the issues, put them together in online chat rooms so they could discuss their points of view, then brought them together in plenary sessions where they had the opportunity to speak with experts. And then we surveyed them a second time.

The results paint a fascinating picture of how deeply Canadians care about what happens beyond our borders and — perhaps more importantly — the extent to which they understand what’s at stake.

With Canada Speaks, our aim is to take the results that were revealed during the deliberative polling process and inject the findings into a conversation about Canada‘s place in the world, so that the actions taken on our behalf align with our preferences and sense of what’s important. The  series will feature prominent Canadians reviewing the data with the goal of generating pressure so that government action is aligned with the reality of what voters believe to be the right course of action for Canada.