Since 1932, the Lake Couchiching conference in Orillia, Ont. has been a place where world leaders, intellectuals, students, and industry chiefs debate and then decompress on a canoe or by sitting around a campfire.

The 79th annual conference of the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs kicks off on Thursday. This year's theme is the global recession, and whether it's changed our notion of the role of the state.

If you haven't heard of "Couch," as it's affectionately called, organizers describe it as Canada's oldest non-partisan organization -- a "Summer Camp for the Mind" devoted to studying and highlighting current issues that affect public policy.

For former prime minister Paul Martin, it played an important role in helping to crystallize his concept of the G20 before he presented it on a bigger stage.

"When I spoke there as minister of finance in 1998, I was really formulating ideas that led to the creation of the G20," he told CTV.ca in a recent phone interview.

Martin said global industries and trade have made nations realize the extent of their interdependence, but governments were too blinded by concerns over their own sovereignty to bring down barriers and really start working together.

"They failed to recognize that their sovereignty would only be protected if, in fact, they were able to work together. I spoke about that at Couch, and not long after that I was able to convince the Americans and then the Brits that the G20 should be created."

Martin is Friday afternoon's keynote speaker and is expected to share his vision of the G20's future. (Friday will be a true show of Couchiching's non-partisan nature, as Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will take the stage in the morning.)

When asked about the recent G20 summit in Toronto, Martin said he regrets that climate change and aid for Africa received little attention.

"And the crucial issue in terms of the economy is the question of bank regulation," he said.

"The reason this financial crisis is so severe is that it has, as its core, a banking crisis. It would have been better had there been much more discussion on that issue so that a final resolution could be seen at the G20 in Korea at the end of November. But unfortunately, that did not happen."

Margaret MacMillan, an acclaimed Canadian historian who is also on the Couchiching itinerary, said the sweeping bank-reform bill passed in the United States was a step in the right direction.

"But that's only dealing with the U.S. economy. I think we really need to deal with the international economy and the international financial structure so that a financial meltdown doesn't happen again," she told CTV.ca.

MacMillan, the current Warden of St. Antony's College, Oxford University, will kick off the conference Thursday evening with a keynote address, when she'll try to put the economic crisis in historical context.

She said working abroad may have given her a valuable outsider's perspective on how her native country has dealt with the financial crisis.

"It has made me realize how lucky Canada is, partly because of a fairly robust system of regulation which didn't dismantle unlike other countries," MacMillan said. "That's actually something Paul Martin and the Liberals of the ‘90s are responsible for, as they helped to reinforce the system."

But she warned while Canada seems to be coping relatively well in the aftermath of the collapse, having avoided some of the excesses of the U.S. and very dramatic cuts to public funding, it's no time to get smug.

"I'm not sure Canadians realize how lucky we are," she said.

"We still have things that people want to buy. Canada can always sell its resources and its manufactured goods. We're in a fairly fortunate position for a number of reasons. … Some of it's to do with us, but some of it's to do with sheer good luck."

‘A Civil Place to Disagree'

While MacMillan spoke of the advantage of an outsider's view, Martin said the conference format allows for a deeper, thoughtful discourse, helped by the fact it's situated away from the bustle of the city.

"These are discussions which take place away from the headlines, so people with differing points of view can express them in a way that allows for progress, as opposed to bombast or rhetoric," said Martin.

"And the fact it's held in the summer means people are prepared to step back and perhaps take a longer-range perspective on what it is they're dealing with. All of this, I think, is what makes Couchiching so important."

It also holds special significance for Martin. His father, Paul Martin Sr., was a veteran speaker of several Couchiching conferences. As a young boy, Martin Jr. remembered his father going off to Lake Couchiching to speak -- first as a young member of Parliament, then as minister of health and later on as minister of foreign affairs.

"My father was one of the fathers of Medicare in this country, at a time when it was highly contested. At a time when it didn't form the quasi-unanimity that it has in the country today. I know that he felt Couchiching was an opportunity for him to put those views forth and to have them tested."

Follow CTV.ca's coverage of the Couchiching Conference starting Friday, Aug. 6.