A proud prime minister congratulated Canadians for hosting a successful and peaceful G-8 summit yesterday, saying departing world leaders had nothing but praise after their two days in Kananaskis.
"I would like to say thank you to the people of Alberta, the city of Calgary and all the volunteers who have worked on this; it has been a great success," Jean Chretien said after wrapping up the G-8 summit in K-Country.
"I have to tell you the leaders were really, really impressed with the site and the organization. Many of them commented to me that it was the best site and probably the most efficient meeting they've had."
Chretien congratulated protesters for sending their message in a peaceful way, and said Canadians could take pride in hosting such a well-organized summit.
"I can say to the Canadian people that you can be proud of Canada because they were all impressed by the quality of the reception and the efficiency of those who organized the meeting," Chretien said, noting Africa, terrorism and economic growth were all addressed as planned.
"We started on time, we finished on time, the agenda was completely respected."
Chretien noted by packing the summit into two days in a remote location, leaders were able to get down to business, with little time for anything else.
French President Jacques Chirac said three things likely contributed to the peacefulness of the summit: the isolated venue, the fact poorer nations were addressed by the agenda, and the summit's organization and dialogue with civil groups.
"This G-8 was well prepared, probably better prepared than other G-8s through the conversations and dialogues with (non-governmental organizations) and civil society," Chirac said, noting he planned to include the same groups when the G-8 is held in France next year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted to being sleepy due to the radical time change, but had warm words for the summit's organization and the mood of fellow leaders.
"The Kananaskis summit was organized very well and was very successful," Putin said.
"But speaking about the discussions and meetings we had, I wanted to emphasize there is a very positive attitude of all the leaders towards each other ... It is a very unique environment that allows us to co-operate and interact and have partnerships."
And policing in Calgary will soon be back to normal, deputy chief Jim Hornby said.
City police have been operating at just better than skeleton-crew strength during the G-8 summit, a situation that will get better in a few days.
The G-8 shifts end tomorrow, but most of the police involved in the planning will be involved in several day worth of "after action" reports.
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