The siege mentality of back-to-back summits will cost us dearly

Spending $1-billion to play host is preposterous

by Jeffrey Simpson

There was a time, when Gerald Ford was president of the United States and Pierre Trudeau was prime minister of Canada, that seven world leaders gathered informally once a year.

The meeting was called the G7 summit, and the countries formed a cozy club of Western democracies. The leaders brought a handful of aides, didn’t make grandiose declarations, but rather talked among themselves about the issues of moment. They got to know each other better, and that was no bad thing.

The world has mightily changed since those mid-1970s days. With those changes came the expansion of the G7 to the G8, courtesy of the admission of Russia, and the creation of the G20, whose leaders will gather in late June in Toronto.

Mark these words, based on briefings from officials from four participant countries: The G20, at least for the Canadian media, will be the most grossly over-covered event of 2010.

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Meanwhile the Canadian deficit continues to go through the roof. Tom