G8/G20 A Success For Canada

With the G8 and G20 summits now over, it is hard not to conclude that the meetings were a huge success for Canada and for Stephen Harper's government. Going in to these summits, Harper had three objectives: kill the proposed bank tax, get agreement to cut deficits by half by 2013, and secure funding for maternal health initiatives in the developing world without promoting abortion. With the debates over and the leaders departed, it is clear Harper went three-for-three. A uniform bank tax across the G20, as was proposed by the UK and US, was quickly abandoned and instead it will be up to individual countries to impose whatever taxes they wish, and Canada will, of course, levy no such tax. Coming into the summits, countries such as Germany were pushing for strict austerity measures while others, notably the United States, insisted that it was too soon to stop stimulus spending. Harper's proposal was to slash budget deficits in half by 2013, a "Canadian compromise" eventually agreed to by the other nations involved. And finally, the most lasting and positive outcome from these meetings will be the new funding secured for maternal and child health. This was, as Harper described, the flagship initiative of this G8 meeting, and it will see $7.3 billion spent over the next five years to help fight the eight million child deaths and 350,000 maternal deaths that occur every year, largely in the developing world. Of the $7.3 billion, Canada will provide a disproportionately large contribution of $1.1 billion, of which zero will go to fund abortions and will instead be spent on vaccinations, safe and sanitary deliveries, and life-saving medications and treatments for mothers and infants, precisely what Harper had been after. Even the protests ended up helping Harper by silencing the uproar over the security costs. Why do we have to spend a billion dollars on security? Because cowardly thugs hiding behind black masks insist on torching cars, smashing windows and breaking into banks. But in the end, these summits should not be remembered for the "protests" but rather for Canada's clear policy victories and leadership on the world stage.