The fourth annual Reclaiming Conference will be taking place in Calgary at the BMO Centre from Sept. 19 to 21.Billed as the largest grassroots conservative-leaning leadership gathering in Canada, the event — organized by We Unify, an independent and nonpartisan volunteer group — will see a coalition of leaders from government, media, digital platforms, and academia gather to discuss this year’s topic: “The Future of Leadership.”The theme aims to tackle questions of safeguarding democracy from disinformation and polarization, protecting civil liberties, civic engagement, and exploring the role of AI and digital platforms in governance, among many others.According to organizers, the event will bring together leaders from government, media, academia, technology, and civil society to explore ways of safeguarding democratic institutions and healing political divides.Chloe Barnes, the conference’s volunteer communications director, said the 2025 edition is shaping up to be the biggest yet.“We have people attending from all over North America and even a couple flying from overseas,” she told the Western Standard.Barnes said there are 70 speakers confirmed so far, and We Unify is working on confirming more.“We’re just trying to foster a think tank of sorts,” she said.“It’s a chance for people to learn from influential leaders, network, and engage in conversations across political lines.”.Unified Grassroots presses on after Legion cancels Western independence meetings.The event draws inspiration from the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) organization, launched by Jordan Peterson, which brings together experts across disciplines.Some keynote speakers this year include:Michelle Ferreri, former Conservative MPDr. Robert Malone, researcher and discoverer of in-vitro and in-vivo RNA transfection and the inventor of mRNA vaccines.Hon. Stockwell Day, former Canadian Alliance leader and federal cabinet ministerDavid Freiheit (Viva Frei), political commentator and YouTuberBruce Pardy, Queen’s University law professor and Fraser Institute fellowLisa Bildy, lawyer and Executive Director of Free Speech Union CanadaJamie Salé, Olympic gold medalist and commentatorJacob Wells, co-founder of GiveSendGo, the world's leader in faith-based online fundingDr. Frances Widdowson, academic, author, and free speech advocateBarnes noted that organizers are encouraging bipartisan participation from a wide spectrum of political voices, though it has been challenging to attract more liberal-leaning figures.“It’s very hard to get people who are less conservative-minded to attend a conference like this,” she revealed.“It’s not for lack of effort — we’ve invited many. But we want to stress this is not about attacking anyone. We would love to have those conversations and hear those points of view.”AI is expected to feature prominently, with speakers such as Paul Allen and his Citizen Portal AI exploring both its risks and opportunities.“Obviously, the next level of technology is here,” Barnes said. “We want to talk about how AI can be used for our benefit and how to prevent it from being used against us.”.Stockwell Day backs Alberta vote on independence, cautions Conservatives about split.Barnes said the conference reflects a broader shift in conservative circles toward dialogue rather than confrontation, with an emphasis on creating a “unifying story” as one of the main strategies discussed at the conference.“We’ve kind of lost the art of Socratic dialogue — of having conversations with someone for the sake of not trying to convince them of anything but actually listening and understanding their point of view,” Barnes said.“The conservative movement is starting to catch onto that and they’ve begun to change tactics.“We might not agree on how to get to the end goal, a lot of the time, but the end goal is the same. It's protection of the people. It's protecting our country. We have common ground, so let's find it.”For more information on the Reclaiming Conference and how to get tickets, visit weunify.ca
