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Trudeau in Saskatoon 
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Wealth gap widening
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Bon Jovi 'hasn't been a saint'
The Group of Seven (G7) industrialized countries meet annually for an over-publicized summit.
The seven leaders and their invitees pose for photographs and issue a communique prepared by bureaucrats well in advance, occasionally amended by minimal tweaking.
This year’s summit was a little different, as leaders morphed into the Seven Dwarves when Ukraine’s president flew to Hiroshima, Japan to fulfil the role of Snow White.
Watching this extravaganza on television, the iconic Beatles song “Baby, You’re a Rich Man" was playing in my cranial jukebox. The opening line “How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?”, followed by “You keep all your money in a big brown bag inside a zoo, What a thing to do” seemed to fit this political circus perfectly.
(Ukraine’s) President Volodymyr Zelenskyy headed home with more billions to prolong the conflict, now viewed by many Americans and others as U.S. President Joe Biden’s proxy war against Russia.
Far more interesting was an email received a few days later, with a YouTube video of a meeting at the summit between the longest-serving G7 leader, Canda’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the newest participant, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy.
Canada’s prime minister took it upon himself to admonish his Italian counterpart for her country’s position on LGBTQ rights.
As a newcomer to the international stage, Meloni proved she was no push-over, telling Trudeau he had been listening to “fake news.” Italy’s media reported the meeting very prominently, noting Canada was a great nation led by a “buffoon.”
Pictures of Trudeau’s former gaffes, like appearing in blackface, were emblazoned all over Italian front-pages. Canadian mainstream media has kept eerily silent about this latest international embarrassment, but it can be easily accessed online.
Ironically, the same day the eight-minute YouTube video arrived in my Inbox, Canadian media reported the household debt in Canada is the highest of all G7 countries, at 107% of the country’s GDP, house prices and huge mortgages being a major factor. The country with the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio was Italy at 44%.
With Trudeau’s mishandling and mismanagement of the latest domestic scandal concerning Chinese interference in Canada’s elections, there is a widespread opinion he may well be a buffoon.
Bernie Smith, Parksville
