Good morning,
World leaders are gathered in Osaka, Japan, for the Group of 20 summit this weekend. The days are filled with group meetings, bilaterals, dinners and leaders bumping into one another on the sidelines. Here are a few of the notable run-ins that have happened so far.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese President Xi Jinping: One of Mr. Trudeau’s stated goals heading into the summit was to seek a thaw in Canada-China relations. Mr. Trudeau’s office said he and Mr. Xi spoke before a formal meeting and had “brief, constructive interactions." The two sat next to each other during a working lunch but didn’t talk much while the cameras were on.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. Abe, whose country is hosting the summit, was first on the schedule. To reporters, Mr. Trump blasted a peace treaty the U.S. and Japan had signed after the Second World War. “If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War III. We will go in, and we will protect them, and we will fight with our lives and with our treasure. We will fight at all costs, right? But if we’re attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all. They can watch it on a Sony television, the attack,” Mr. Trump said. A Japanese government spokesperson said the obligations under the longstanding treaty were “balanced.”
Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin: After a meeting, the two leaders posed for photos where Mr. Trump was asked whether the topic of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election came up in their conversation. “Don’t meddle in the election, please,” Mr. Trump said to Mr. Putin beside him. Mr. Putin smiled, but did not respond.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
A Canadian lobbying firm has been hired by a notorious Sudanese military leader to polish the public image of a group accused of massacring pro-democracy protesters. Dickens & Madson (Canada) Inc. signed a US$6-million contract that says they will “use our best efforts to ensure favourable international as well as Sudanese media coverage for you.”
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has relaxed his opposition to cannabis legalization, saying that if his party wins power in the election he has no intention of recriminalizing the drug or stopping pardons for simple possession.
Want to ride a bus or fly in a plane with Mr. Trudeau? You can, if you’re a lucky Liberal Party donor.
California Senator Kamala Harris stood out on the second night of Democratic presidential candidate debates.
And a new exhibit is opening at the Canadian War Museum this weekend: a series of portraits painted by former U.S. president George W. Bush. The paintings depict veterans who were wounded in the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts waged by the U.S. military while Mr. Bush was in charge. The president of the museum admits it’s on display because of the topic and the painter – not the art itself. “We don’t have this here for its aesthetic quality,” Mark O’Neill said.
Margaret Wente (The Globe and Mail) on the lack of a successful Trump-like politician in Canada: “Our tradition of accommodation has pushed our major parties closer together, not farther apart. As bitter as the rivalries sometimes seem, their differences are mostly ones of tone and the leader’s personality, not of substance. Our two main tribes, the Liberals and Conservatives basically agree on everything from medicare, trade and immigration to gay marriage and abortion. They both have more or less pragmatic climate policies – one from conviction, the other from self-defence.”
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on aging as a public-policy concern: “Last year, for the first time in human history, the number of people on Earth aged 65 or older outnumbered children under five, according to a recent United Nations report. People over 65 are now the world’s fastest-growing age group. Three decades from now, one-quarter of the population in Europe, the United States and Canada will be over 65.”
Murray Mandryk (Saskatoon StarPhoenix) on Trudeau vs. the premiers: “That said, Western frustration with the federal government — and, by extension, the federal system — is all too real. So it’s no small irony the fix may be the system itself. If either the election or the highest court dispenses with the carbon tax, what’s the Western separatist argument that Confederation no longer works?”
Daphne Bramham (Vancouver Sun) on Canada Day: “It’s time to celebrate, reflect and be grateful for what we have and who we are. We are not a perfect country. There is no such thing. But we are an aspirational country with people striving for reconciliation, for peaceful diversity, and prosperity that’s shared not only at home, but internationally.”
Kate Taylor (The Globe and Mail) reviews the George W. Bush exhibit: “If you wanted to witness the work of Canada’s Afghanistan veterans, there are professional Canadian photographers who might rise to the challenge of telling portraiture. An American hobbyist’s mediocre political exercise has no place in the Canadian War Museum.”
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Chris Hannay