OTTAWA - The delicious irony is not lost on Paul Martin.
Not only has his once-scorned G20 creation suddenly emerged as the go-to body of global economic governance, but Stephen Harper - the man who replaced him as prime minister and once heaped scorn on the idea - will preside over the unofficial launch. "I must say, I feel pretty good," Martin said Friday upon hearing that Canada will host back-to-back meetings of the G8 and G20 countries next June.
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When he was Canadian Alliance leader in 2003, Harper attacked Martin's G20 as an example of Canada's "weak nation strategy."
He dismissed it as "nothing more than old multilateralism with a smaller cast of characters ... (designed) to rein in the United States."
Harper is now humming a very different tune, acknowledging the transformation of the G20 as the world's "premier" economic summit.
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http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=n251017917I have never been a fan of Paul Martin but I have to say I love that Harper has to eat crow on this, lol.