Approximately thirty esteemed academics, former diplomats and politicians, and representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) came to Waterloo, Ontario, for a two-hour, high-level panel discussion on the future of Canadian foreign policy sponsored by the Canadian International Council (CIC) . The session was co-chaired by Allan Gotlieb, Canada's Ambassador to the United States from 1981 to 1989, and Paul Heinbecker of Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU), Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and Canada's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2000 to 2003. On the table for discussion was a position paper on Canada's role in global institutional reform by Gordon Smith, Executive Director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria.