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Much of the discussion will look beyond next year’s U.S. election, after President Barack Obama’s term expires.

“We really want to have a conversation to try and put together a post-2016 agenda for moving issues in North America that are key to Western Canada — energy, environment, movement of people, especially workers associated with infrastructure and commodity production, trade with Asia, gearing up for the TTP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), dealing with the Pacific Alliance.”

Leaders from Winnipeg to Victoria have been invited to attend.

“We hope this will be part of a series of events and conversations throughout western North America to forge the agenda. So we want to start this now obviously,” said Dade. “We don’t want to wait until January 2017 when the new administration is in Washington to start talking about this.”

Kim Moody, one of the attendees, said the quality of speakers first caught his attention.

Petraeus led the U.S.-dominated military force in Iraq during the pivotal troop surge of 2007 under then-president George W. Bush, then served as head of the country’s intelligence agency under Obama.

Zoellick was Bush’s top trade official during his first term, then led the World Bank from 2007 to 2012.

“I think the premise is very timely especially given the Keystone (pipeline situation) as a prime example,” said Moody, managing director of Canadian tax advisory for Moodys Gartner Tax Law.

“Also, although this certainly wasn’t planned, the new NDP government (in Alberta) I guess time will tell as to what their policies do to encourage policies that benefit North America as opposed to their traditional use. So we’ll see what happens.”

The event is produced by tinePublic’s Christian Darbyshire and Andy McCreath, who have brought high-profile speakers to Calgary in the past including former U.S. president George W. Bush, former British prime minister Tony Blair, former Republican vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin, former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and current presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.

With files from Jason Markusoff, Calgary Herald

mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com