What will Canada look like in 2020? How would the country change if the cost of oil double or triples in the coming decade? Where and how would we live if global temperatures rise dramatically? What will our cities, our health-care system and Canada’s role in the world look like?

The CBC and the Dominion Institute have invited 20 leading thinkers to comment on the single issue or event that they think could transform Canada by 2020.

CBC.ca will post the essays here as they are released over the next six months. Coverage on CBC-TV and CBC Radio includes interviews, commentary and mini-documentaries on the ideas raised by each of the thinkers. Tune into CBC News: Morning, The National, The Current, The Sunday Edition and local CBC radio stations across Canada for more.

Canada in 2020 is an initiative of Dominion Institute in association with La Presse, the Toronto Star and the CBC. Visit www.twenty-twenty.ca, and add your voice to the debate and compete for a $2,020 prize for best essay on what Canada will look like in 2020.

POLL:

• National public opinion survey
• Full survey questions

ESSAYS:

Oct. 12, 2006
Canada sans Quebec, the 51st state by Chantal Hébert
"The eyes of the world are on the former Canadian federation on this first Tuesday of November 2020 as its 19 million voters participate for the first time in an American presidential election as full-fledged U.S. citizens."

Oct. 10, 2006
How aging boomers will reshape health care by Dr. David Walker
"Changes in what used to be called "health care" in the developed world had been profound. An aging population that demanded constant fine tuning along with extremely expensive interventions had brought about a significant overhaul of the system."

Oct. 3, 2006
The future of democracy by Mark Kingwell
"Politicians have become brokers of interest rather than leaders, and citizens reduce themselves to consumers of goods and services enjoyed in return for regular obedience to the tax code."

Sept. 12, 2006
Atlantic Canada on the rise in 2020 by George Elliott Clarke
"Most observers of the collapse of Canada had written off the "Atlantic Provinces" — Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland (especially after Quebec annexed Labrador as part of its settlement with Canada) — but that supposition was based on a deep ignorance of history."

Aug. 31, 2006
Nalunaktuq: The Arctic as force, instead of resource by Rachel A. Qitsualik
"Inuit made little headway complaining that the bacterial strain used to clean up the oil was giving their children skin ulcerations, but the Canadian public at least roused itself once the pictures of afflicted seal pups came out."

Aug. 21, 2006
Western separation, the time has come by Roger Gibbins
"And now, in 2020, where do we stand as Albertans prepare to go to the polls, and to strike out on their own?"

Aug. 1, 2006
Reviving the spirit of San Francisco? by Jennifer Welsh
"For so long, the biggest factor working in favour of the UN was the lack of alternatives. Defenders of the organization, when faced with criticism, would commonly reply: "If the United Nations didn’t exist, it would have to be invented." After 2012, this rationale began to lose its punch."

July 24, 2006
Whither the Canadian economy? by Don Drummond
"One option for Canada, between now and the year 2020, would be to allow emerging economies to use their huge surplus savings to purchase our assets while we use the proceeds to maintain our consumption standards. But surely we have greater aspirations than this. To stay at the top of the world economic order we need ample, well-paying jobs matched to strong output growth. An economy can only sustain high wages if it has strong productivity."

July 17, 2006
The baby boomers' tab by Pierre Fortin
"Baby boomers born between 1945 and 1960 are going to retire en masse but they will leave few children and grandchildren behind. Canada is thus going to undergo a major demographic transition."

July 7, 2006
San Paulo of the North: The effects of mass immigration on our cities by Daniel Stoffman
"In 2020, vast tracts of suburban slums occupy what used to be good farmland on the city’s outskirts. Traffic congestion and air pollution are unbearable. Toronto’s reputation as one of North America’s most liveable cities is a distant memory."

July 4, 2006
Canada under attack: Story of a foreseen terror by Richard Hétu
"Canada, like any other industrialized Western country, is not sheltered from a large-scale terrorist attack. And yet, for nearly 20 years we have been protected, day after day, by the grace of God, CSIS or luck. Unfortunately, this state of affairs came to an end this afternoon in the Montreal metro."

June 30, 2006
Imagining Canada's 153rd Birthday by Andrew Cohen
"In 2020, Canada is a country in little more than name. It has taken the 19th-century idea of the nation-state and turned it on its head; Canada is now a collection of many nations (its ethnic minorities) who know only their own past, and many states (its provinces) that know only their own interests."

June 29, 2006
Does Canada have courage and vision for the future? by Rudyard Griffiths
"Without a strategic culture born of shared challenges and equipped to advance common national goals, Canada risks becoming a shadow of its former self…"