Hard Choices are Better Made Together
The question at the heart of our work:
How might people live well without undermining the natural systems that make human flourishing possible?
Kingsbrae Conversations invites Atlantic Canadians into brave conversation about the future we share.
We bring diverse voices together to find a common path forward, through honest disagreement and open listening.
How we address these challenges is not yet settled. Everyone has a voice in the answer.
Many of the solutions we need already exist.
Deciding together is the hard part. Solutions compete with housing, health care and the cost of living, while our economy and our sovereignty are under pressure. Who pays? What comes first? What is fair?
We are all part of the systems that got us here, so everyone comes to the table as a participant.
Brave conversation works on exactly these decisions.
Brave conversation moves us from knowing to doing.
It begins long before anyone speaks, by earning the trust of people who don’t usually talk to each other.
Brave conversation asks everyone to speak candidly, hold their certainty lightly, listen to understand, face real trade-offs and stay engaged when agreement is not possible.
Why it works.
When people hear what others stand to gain and lose, they find trade-offs they can live with, imagine options no one brought into the room, and commit to acting together.
That is how a region moves from knowing what to do, to doing it.
Why every voice matters.
Fishers, farmers and foresters. Business and labour. Indigenous peoples and environmental groups. Communities and governments. Anyone curious or concerned.
Young people will live longest with the choices we make, so they belong at the centre.
Why we need imagination.
A better future has to be imagined before it can be built. Artists, Indigenous wisdom and the natural world show us what is possible.
What We Learned from our first Gathering.
Our home is Kingsbrae Garden in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, on the traditional territory of the Peskotomuhkati people. In June 2026, 130 people spent three days here together.
Our next Gathering is September 19 to 21, 2027. Over the next three years, we will also take these conversations into communities across Atlantic Canada.
“I left Kingsbrae hopeful because the project has so much possibility. It is already bringing thoughtful people together around important questions. My hope is that future gatherings keep growing into an even braver space, where people are not only heard, but open to being changed by what they hear.”
- The Gathering 2026 participant
Note: These are early learnings that brave conversation turns understanding into commitment. See our impact.
Find your way to connect.
Whatever brings you here, there is a way in.
Attend
Bring your voice, and come ready to listen.
Speak
We want voices that make us think, from many points of view.
Partner
Companies and organizations that share this vision help us grow.
Imagine Atlantic Canada showing the way.
An Atlantic Canada that chooses its future together, through brave conversation and imagination, and where what begins here is shared well beyond it.
We acknowledge that the land upon which we gather is in Peskotomuhkati Nation, the traditional and sacred territory of the Peskotomuhkati People. We pay our respects to the Peskotomuhkati people in the past, present, and future, for they hold the memories, traditions, culture, and hopes of this land.