The Theory CANADA series of conferences began as a satellite conference immediately before the 2005 congress of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP); both conferences were held on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The following year the CAP congress at Brock University in St Catharines was preceded by Theory CANADA 2, which was held at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo. In 2007, the Theoretical Physics Institute of the University of Alberta hosted Theory CANADA 3, immediately prior to the CAP congress in Saskatoon.

The original motivation behind the series was to provide a venue for Canadian theoretical and mathematical physicists of all flavours to interact and exchange ideas. This was seen as particularly important given Canada's geographical vastness, and the relative isolation in which some researchers find themselves. The conference has evolved to have some international participation, but the majority of participants still have some connection to Canada.

In 2008, the CAP congress will be held on the Université Laval campus in Québec City, 8-11 June, and the Centre des Recherches Mathématiques is the hosting institute for Theory CANADA 4.

The scientific content of the conference consists of five thematic half-day sessions, tentatively entitled:

Each session will have two 30-minute talks and five 20-minute talks (including time for questions). The talks are intended to be comprehensible to researchers in theoretical physics who are non-experts in the field.

Each session will include a coffee break, and the conference will begin with a reception on the evening of 4 June. A banquet will be held at a local restaurant on 6 June. Depending on need, arrangements may be made for at-cost transportation to Québec City on either Saturday or Sunday for those attending the CAP congress.

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Residences of the Université de Montréal; please see the housing page for more details. NOTE: the conference coincides with an automobile race in Montreal, so hotels will fill up very early and are very expensive.

As with the previous three Theory CANADA conferences, a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Physics will serve as the Proceedings of the conference. The format and other details will likely be very much the same as the previous years. All speakers are expected to submit a contribution to the proceedings within 6 weeks of the conference.