Andrew Coyne, The Globe and Mail
It was over because the Group of Seven is over, at least in the sense in which it was originally envisaged: as a club of like-minded democracies, large enough and wealthy enough to be able, collectively, to set the global economic agenda.
They’re still large and wealthy, albeit not so much in relative terms: where the G7 countries accounted for roughly 70 per cent of world GDP in 1976, the year Canada joined, they now add up to just 45 per cent. What’s really changed, however, is that they are no longer so like-minded – or, in one case, democratic. What’s changed is that the United States elected Donald Trump. Again.
What made this year’s meeting of the G7 utterly absurd was that Mr. Trump shares none of the G7’s declared aims. It is not merely that he disagrees with the consensus on this or that item on the agenda, or that he prefers a different route to a broadly shared aim.
He is fundamentally opposed to everything the G7 stands for, including the G7: the very idea of independent nations attempting to work together for the common good – as opposed to major powers doing whatever they like – is anathema to him.
The rest of the G7 are for liberal trade; Mr. Trump is against trade, or at least imports. They are for macroeconomic stability; Mr. Trump is for deficits without limit. They are for the collective defence of the democracies, and in particular for the defence of Ukraine. Mr. Trump is on the side of Russia, and the autocracies.
