Eight statesmen, scores of aides, hundreds of press, and thousands of security personnel will descend next week on Kananaskis. For the fourth time since 1976, but the first time in Western Canada, a Canadian prime minister will be hosting the G-8 leaders summit.
The G-8 is the most exclusive club in the world. The United Nations is composed of 190 countries, the Commonwealth has 54 members, 19 nations belong to NATO. But only the U.S., Russia, Japan, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Canada form the G-8. How did Canada come to be a member of this political directoire when giants like China and Brazil are excluded?
In 1975, president Valery Giscard d'Estaing of France had a good idea. In that era of energy crisis and galloping inflation, France recognized that the world economy required states to work in concert. The French president recommended that the world's leaders meet to debate forcefully and informally the issues of the day. He hoped that, free from the protocol and intricacies of existing international organizations, a co-ordinated economic strategy could be developed. There was ready agreement to the concept and the agenda. But a major issue arose -- who would be invited to be a member of this new club?
Invitations were extended to France's partners in the G-5 economic consultative group, and as a neighbourly gesture, Giscard d'Estaing also invited Italy. Canada, however, was left out. France's decision may have been a continuation of the Gaullist campaign to diminish Canada that had begun with Gen. Charles de Gaulle's Vive Quebec libre speech in Montreal. Or France may not have wanted to set a precedent for other middle powers, but the French president was adamant -- No Canada!
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, however, launched a quick and effective counter-offensive. At that time, Canada had a larger gross national product than Italy and we still had significant military assets and foreign aid commitments. In short, Canada had more relative capability (or "clout" on the international stage) than we do today. Trudeau's good personal relations with the world's leaders also came into play. James Callaghan of Great Britain intervened with France, Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt told the French he would not attend any future meetings unless Canada participated, and the Japanese made it known that another non-European voice would be welcome.
But Canada's key friend was president Gerald Ford of the United States. As a longtime representative of Michigan in the Congress, Ford knew Canada well. When he became president, through the accident of the Watergate scandal in 1974, Ford and Trudeau immediately hit it off. President Ford was irate about Canada's exclusion, and he briefly considered refusing to attend the summit. A more positive approach, however, was chosen. The United States was to host the next summit, and just as France had invited Italy in 1975, the United States would invite Canada to attend the 1976 summit in Puerto Rico. Once invited, Ford concluded, we would not be excluded from future meetings. So it has proved.
Later, Russia was added to the G-7 to make the G-8. It is one of the most important forums in the world. In 1983, Trudeau persuaded his partners to issue a political declaration that subsequently became part of his peace mission to restore arms control peace negotiations among the superpowers. In 1987, prime minister Brian Mulroney led a dialogue on South Africa. This year, Prime Minister Jean Chretien has made African development the centrepiece of the agenda. Through the G-8, Canada is part of the major leagues of international diplomacy.
Canada's membership is probably the most significant foreign policy achievement of the Trudeau era. We owe this elevated status, however, to a decent man largely unrecognized in his own country's history, president Gerald Ford.
Thomas S. Axworthy is executive director of Historica. For more information about the evolution of Canadian international relations, consult The Canadian Encyclopedia, published on-line by Historica, at www.histori.ca.
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