That’s a wrap. The delegates are filing out, reporters are awaiting the post-game press conference, and although the conference portion of Canada at 150 is over, the dialogue it began will go on for some time.

This weekend was supposed to be a national conversation, much bigger than the room here in Montréal. And, in the end, it was.

More than 70 satellite events across Canada. 52,000 hits on this website. (Hello, world!) 6,200 participants in the live-chat. And more than 20,000 webcast viewers.

We were the #1 trending topic on Twitter all weekend long. Questions came in by Skype from across the country—from Glace Bay to Whitehorse.

The numbers were impressive and unexpected. But what floored us was the quality of the conversation. We didn’t come here to talk about tactics or electoral strategy, or to choose priorities with political ends.

For three days, we talked about ideas. Big ideas. Bold ideas. The political filter—the one that emits a high-pitched beeping sound in the split second before taking a political risk—was switched off, and we were uncensored. It was a welcome, refreshing change. You can’t build a future on personal attacks and wedge politics.

Tomorrow is another day and the real test will be whether this weekend’s conversation can continue without being drowned out by the empty calories of Canadian politics—who’s up, who’s down, and so on.

This weekend was a glimpse of what our political discourse can achieve. Whether that continues is up to us.

We hope you’ll keep in touch.