I think this does not qualify as a worthwhile Canadian initiative:
Former President George W. Bush’s first confirmed speaking engagement since leaving office will take him from Crawford to Canada.
Invitations to the event, billed as “a conversation with George W. Bush,” say that the former president will “share his thoughts on his eight momentous years in the Oval Office” during a March 17 speech in Calgary, Alberta. […] But the Canadian firm organizing the lunch has paid sizable fees to Lance Armstrong, Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell and Alan Greenspan. Former President Bill Clinton was paid $150,000 for a March 2006 speech in Edmonton, according to a Canadian newspaper.
But don’t go too hard on our Canadian friends, Alberta is sort of like the Alaska of Canada — an unusually right-wing petrostate where things like working relentlessly to doom the planet to ecological catastrophe are considered worthy of high praise.