The 2015 edition of the GCD will feature yet another lineup of celebrated thinkers clashing over the most important issues facing Canada today.

The debates will be spread over three separate events taking place between March and May of 2015 at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

This year's debaters are:

• Lloyd Axworthy, former cabinet minister

• Chrystia Freeland, member of Parliament

• Andrew Coyne, National Post Opinion Editor

• Ken Coates, MLI Senior Fellow

• Frank Buckley, George Mason professor

• John Pepall, author of Against Reform

They'll be debating income inequality, the oversaturation of Canadian universities and the crisis of Canadian democracy.

Former speaker of the House of Commons Peter Milliken will again be serving as moderator.

The rankings also place MLI as one of Canada's top three among its peers: truly independent, national public policy think tanks focusing on the full spectrum of national issues and receiving no government subsidy.

These rankings emerge from the 2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, an annual production of the University of Pennsylvania's Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program, which was released on Thursday, Jan. 22.

The idea of sharing with First Nations the revenues provinces earn from natural resource projects is now a subject of debate across the country, thanks to a newly-released paper from MLI Senior Fellow Ken Coates.

The paper argues that resource revenue sharing agreements are an ideal way to compensate First Nations groups for the use of their lands while also winning the necessary support from Aboriginals to make possible continued natural resource development.

The idea quickly gained traction across Canada.

Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason penned a column under the headline "Aboriginal revenue sharing an idea whose time has come".

The Saskatoon StarPhoenix covered the report in a front-page story and Coates participated in a lengthy interview on the subject with Global in Saskatchewan.

Further bolstering his thought leadership on the Aboriginal development file, Coates also wrote a pair of op-eds that appeared in two different newspapers.

The National Post ran a piece in which Coates argued that the problems facing First Nations in Canada run deeper than racism. In the Vancouver Sun, he wrote that First Nations are now full partners in development.

Readers will also have the chance to ask Coates questions on the subject later this month. He will be participating in an "Ask Me Anything" on the social networking site Reddit on Feb. 24 at 1 p.m.