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“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

‘Who is My Neighbour?’ Kananaskis and the Clash of Worldviews (Policy Magazine)


Donald Trump’s America First nationalism has forcefully yanked the world backward from its postwar consensus of interdependence and international cooperation.

The G7 group of leading market economy countries will hold its  annual summit June 15-17 in Kananaskis, Alberta, under Canadian chairmanship, and under Trump’s tariff assault on all partners including G7 partners. The Summit, coming 50 years after Canada’s addition to the G6 made it the G7 in Puerto Rico in 1975, may or may not sustain the principle of mutual interest permitting the G7 to carry on. G7 members are mentally focused on the challenge the Trump administration poses to their own economic outlooks.

But a preparatory meeting this week of G7 finance ministers in Banff avoided substantive discussion of the divisive and toxic US tariff assault on the global economy. Their description of the meeting as “productive” was an evasion of reality to keep the US at least partially in the consensus tent at the ministerial level before its autocratic head of government arrives for the main event on June 15th.

The effect is to show the G7 as a club of rich countries trying to pretend that things remain as they were, while everybody knows that in reality everything has changed ...

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