Elevating Canada's Standing In The World

To the satisfying roar of head explosions on the left; The trouble is that - partly because of the surging commodity prices that have made all incumbent regimes unpopular - G8 is led by politicians who lack authority. Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and Gordon Brown are disliked at home; George Bush is a lame duck; Silvio Berlusconi is changing the law to indemnify himself; Dmitri Medvedev is regarded as Vladimir Putin's creature and, in any case, Russia does not merit inclusion in the G8 by virtue either of its democratic structures or the size of its economy; Yasuo Fukuda, the host, has just become the first ever Japanese leader to have a censure vote passed against him in parliament. Of all the leaders, only Stephen Harper - the talented but curiously neglected Canadian prime minister - is able to point to a popular and... [read full story]