They are calling it “The Great Wall of Huntsville.”
Unlike its Chinese namesake, this one dates back only a few days, not to the 5th century BC, and will mercifully disappear shortly after the June 25-26 G8 summit is over – but for the moment it sets a world standard for ugly.
No one is quite sure what the fence is for, only that it begins at the very edge of Highway 60 and winds its way across fields, swamps, hills and bush until it has fairly wrapped itself around the entire Deerhurst Resort area where the leaders of the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy will meet for a few hours later this month before heading for Toronto and the G20 summit.
Some think it is to keep bears out, as there are no berries yet and not enough cottagers around to satisfy the dump bears.
Some think it’s just more silly spending on a security bill that is said to be in the billion-dollar range – only months after it was supposed to come in at less than $200-million.
Why the soaring costs, people want to know. Where’s mine, others ask, as in the letter-to-the-editor this week that wants to know “just who is making money off the G8.”
Some are. Just try to rent a car in the general area. And someone has to be getting paid for laying all that pavement and building that hideous fence.
Yet the G8 summit has certainly not gone the way it was once expected, with the full world leaders’ gathering scheduled to be held here and Barack Obama, Stephen Harper, Dmitry Medvedev, Naoto Kan, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, David Cameron and Silvio Berlusconi spending enough time here to get sunburned or bitten alive.
