John Kirton reflects on past summits in the Globe and Mail

June 28, 2010

The last time Toronto hosted a great global summit at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Amik almost stole the show. In that splendid summer of 1988, she was the beaver brought down from cottage country with her babies to show otherwise jaded reporters flying in what the real Canada was like. During the day, the babies swam around the very fake but very little lake built especially for her on Summit Square just outside the MTCC, where the CBC headquarters are now. The world’s most influential journalists, leaving their cavernous, concrete media centre to relax on the sunny patio outside, fell in love with them and spread their favourable image, and that of Toronto, around the world. That was at a time when all Toronto needed was a few baby beavers, not a stable banking system, to woo the world.

The G7 leaders and journalists, most coming to the city for the first time, also fell in love with Toronto as a whole. Torontonians, seeing them for the first time close up, fell in love with them in turn. Both were driven by the discovery that Toronto had become a genuine global city and had been recognized as one that worked.

The visiting leaders were led by Ronald Reagan, attending the last of his eight G7 summits before his political retirement six months hence. He was no longer the cold warrior but a wise, revered grandfather who some could sense would soon liberate most of the world from the Communism’s destruction. Germany’s Helmut Kohl gave a speech at the University of Toronto, strolled though the crowd shaking hands, and, to the shock of his security staff, ambled off in search of sweets like a normal Torontonian on that sunny day. Italy’s foreign minister had the time to go to the race track and bet on the ponies.

The leaders met at University of Toronto’s Hart House, where they focused on the future, talked about life-long learning, and had their standard summit “family photo” snapped. Standing under Hart’s arches, everyone looked happy. But the smile soon faded for Japanese Prime Minister Takeshita. He took heat at home because he was not standing right next to Ronald Reagan, as Brian Mulroney had made sure he was.

It was easier to fall in love with the loquacious Brian Mulroney because Torontonians elected Conservative MPs and cabinet ministers back then. Apart from helping Mr. Mulroney understand high finance during the discussions, Michael Wilson threw a dinner for his visiting counterparts at the Old Mill restaurant in his constituency in Etobicoke. Barbara McDougall greeted arriving G7 leaders at the airport. Joe Clark took his fellow foreign ministers out to the Guild Inn, so those in those in Scarborough could share the summit glow. As a diplomat devoted to national unity, Mr. Clark – and his wife, Maureen McTeer – showcased Niagara’s Château des Charmes and Nova Scotia’s Grand Pré Cuvée D’Amour as the evening’s wines.

Continue reading Prof. Kirton’s article online at globeandmail.com.