All roads lead to the Canadian G8 - as long as you follow the detours

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Right now it's more D1 than G8.

"D1" as in "detour." They have closed off the road to the Deerhurst Resort - site of next June's G8 summit that Canada will host - and golfers and cottagers are being rerouted through the twisting road into Hidden Valley, across from the bare ski hill, past the beach and in through the back way.

Try this next June 25-27 and be prepared for everything from submarine attacks off Penn Lake to rocket launches from the Lookout high on the rocks overlooking this little tourist town of 18,500.

Or so goes the local gossip, anyway. "Rumours?" scoffs local councillor Mike Greaves. "Just go to the coffee shop for the newest one."

The hottest rumour at the moment is that the Canadian summit will be "G8-plus," meaning more than the big eight nations will come to Muskoka's famous Cottage Country a year from now.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was first to say the G8 concept is "no longer sufficient," and other leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, are showing a willingness to expand the annual gathering to include other international players.

The nearby town of Gravenhurst has already contacted organizers to see whether the Chinese delegation might be housed there, as Gravenhurst is the birthplace of Norman Bethune, the Canadian doctor who became a great folk hero in China.

"The Prime Minister will have to decide whether this is G8-plus or not," says Minister of Industry Tony Clement from L'Aquila, Italy, where the member of Parliament for Parry Sound-Muskoka is part of the Canadian delegation to this year's summit.

"That's the Prime Minister's prerogative - he's the invite-or."

Clement is essentially serving as his own "point man" in Italy, taking over many of the duties that would have been handled by summit manager Peter McGovern, who was unable to make the trip from Ottawa due to illness.

Clement has been taking photographs and keeping notes on how this small city in Italy has managed such a massive international event. He has wondered how Huntsville could possibly match the exhibit of Galileo's telescope and appreciates that even if Tom Thomson's missing paddle could be found it would not hold much meaning to world leaders.

"Don't worry," he says, "I've got some ideas."

The Industry Minister has also used his BlackBerry to show interested persons what Muskoka looks like in the various seasons. Using a scene he took last winter of Mary Lake, Clement carefully described how local villagers hauled small "cabins" out onto the ice, drilled holes and were able to pull up fish through the openings - a description his listeners took to be Canadian humour.

In late September and again in late January, Clement will be escorting various international media to show off the site, trusting in the fall colours and in Deerhurst's famous pond-hockey tournament to generate some early excitement in the summit that will be held a year from now.

Had it been this June, the world would have been treated to endless shots of rain and protesters suffering from mosquito bites. Clement, and the expected protesters, can only hope next June's weather approximates the spectacular sunshine of L'Aquila.

Yet no matter what the weather forecast, the outlook for this area has brightened considerably as nearly $50-million worth of improvements and new structures are coming courtesy of the summit requirements and a G8 Legacy Fund. An $18-million Summit Centre near the arena will later be transformed into an Olympic-sized ice surface. And a $9-million grant from the legacy fund will go toward a facility that will then be turned over to the University of Waterloo to relocate its environmental studies program.

"This will be the lasting legacy of the summit," says Greaves.

The decision to build the future university building on parkland that was a tribute to the town's First World War veterans, however, has created enough controversy that an open town-hall meeting has been called for this Tuesday in an attempt to resolve the issue.

Some area politicians have taken to calling Clement "Uncle Tony" as project after project was announced over the spring, ranging from bridge and street improvements in villages that won't even be involved in the summit to a $4.5-million "archives" that was, somewhat surprisingly, turned down by the local Lake of Bays council.

That, of course, didn't stop the rumours: local gossip having it that the building was actually to be a "bunker" for top-secret security operations.

"I haven't heard that one yet," laughs Huntsville Mayor Claude Doughty. He says he recently attended an open information forum that was "dead" until a security expert asked "if anyone has heard any good rumours lately. Well, did that every kick it off."

Some of the rumours are, in fact, true. The RCMP has, very quietly, opened a small office in town. Arrangements are being made to put up the thousands of army and police in such places as the local fairgrounds. But the private airport in Dwight isn't on, nor are rocket launchers being assembled at the charming Lookout.

The greatest of all rumours - cottagers renting out to media groups for as much as $25,000 a week - came crashing down when it was announced that the 4,000 or so media would actually be housed in Toronto, with pool reporters being shuttled north each day, a decision that is certain to outrage as many media as scheming cottage owners.

"It was going to be unmanageable if you had 4,000 cottages rented out," says Clement.

Doughty, however, thinks there may still be a "grey market" in nearby cottage rentals, but nothing compared to what was imagined.

Cottagers, though, have not failed to notice the more than a dozen hydro crews moving about slashing brush and taking down leaning trees in an all-out attempt to avoid that all-too-familiar Cottage Country annoyance: downed lines after a summer storm.

What leader, after all, wants it said of them that they were in charge when the lights went out?