Guess who’s coming to town
First of all, let me extend my deepest sympathies to the citizens of Huntsville, Ontario. A lovely community, really; a population of about 18,000. Beautiful countryside, nature in the driver’s seat. Quiet, for the moment. They now have about 24 months to get their barricades in place, because the current government announced today that the G8 summit will be held there in 2010.
Let’s face it; a plague of locusts are a step up from a “summit”. All we have to do is recall such highlights of democratic involvement as Quebec City (2001) or Kananaskis (2002) or Montebello (2007). Are your fences solid? Do you have enough tear gas and rubber bullets to keep “the rest of the world” in line?
I won’t forget the siege of Quebec. Not those of ‘olden times’, but the one that saw the Men In Black protecting my favourite ATM from use, or the odour of gas as I changed transit buses in the early morning. Or the low-flying helicopters that “checked us out” down the street from the office, because… well, just because. Famous politicians don’t live in the same world as the rest of us.
The announcement today whispered phrases like “economic prosperity”. I guess so, if you have a franchise on storm fencing or body armour. For the people who will find their world turned upside down because of a meeting that simply dots the i and crosses the t. Nobody believes that such meetings develop any new policies. Rather, some good food and wine will cross the table, and the limousine industry will get a boost, but for the rest of us – think of it as a tax on life.
The people of Huntsville will probably cheer for a few hours over the choice of “their town”, but the memories will linger like a bad burn for months afterward. The activists have already figured out where you are with the assistance of Google maps, long before the government blurs the images.
