G7

Ever since the Congress of Vienna, summits of the great powers were where the world’s business was done. That ended at this week’s G7

Blink and you miss it: the G7 summit at Calgary was effectively over almost as soon as it began. Yet what we have just witnessed is nothing less than the demise of European power.

Not only did Donald Trump leave early to attend to more important business in Washington, thereby treating the other “world leaders” with unspoken but ill-disguised contempt: he also told them exactly what he thought of their overblown institution.

“The G7 used to be the G8,” he declared in his inimitably bombastic way. “Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in, and I would say that was a mistake, because you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in.”

Come one, come all!

Prime Minister Mark Carney is playing host in Kananaskis, Alberta, to nearly 20 global leaders including President Trump.

Canada is rolling out the red carpet from Sunday to Tuesday for the annual Group of 7 industrialized nations summit. The group’s members are Canada, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan; the European Union has a permanent seat.

Mr. Carney, in keeping with tradition, has invited several leaders from nonmember nations to join the seven on Tuesday, making it all the more interesting. Leaders from India, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, South Korea, Ukraine and South Africa will be there, too, along with the secretary general of NATO.

I hope Trump blows this up.

‘It used to be the G8. The next one could be the G6.’

In a few days time, leaders of the world’s advanced democracies gather in Kananaskis for the G7 meeting. That would be France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Great Britain, the US and (although increasingly as a courtesy) the economically-challenged Canada.

But, this could be the last one: the G7 is a relic of a different era.

MIRROR, Alberta—Prime Minister Mark Carney wants to use a Group of Seven summit starting Sunday to showcase Canadian strength and unity. But global leaders will be visiting an oil-rich province that is considering a divorce from Canada.

Rising disaffection in Alberta presents a challenge for Carney, who was governor of the Bank of England when U.K. voters decided to leave the European Union in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Carney has promised since winning election in April to strengthen Canada’s economy and reduce dependence on the U.S.

The feat would be impossible without Alberta, which holds almost all of Canada’s crude-oil reserves—the world’s fourth largest. The Western province helps drive Canada’s economy. Alberta contributed almost as much to Canada’s growth last year as its financial and manufacturing hub of Ontario, which has more than three times the population, government figures show.