Harper lamer than Mulroney suggests Harper minister Peter Van Loan

Peter Van Loan is now a minister in Stephen Harper‘s cabinet, but back in 1988, he was a young volunteer helping out with what was then called the G7 summit. He told Power Play that even by the standards of the Conservatives, the Harper government doesn’t throw a great party. From the Globe:

“The party is over,” Mr. Van Loan said in a recent interview on CTV’s Power Play. Of the Mulroney-era summit, he said: “It was a great party. There were music bands playing all the time; food and drinks were flowing.”

Mr. Van Loan remembers driving home a band member from Blue Rodeo to his home in Toronto’s Annex.

At that summit, corporations helped to defray some of the costs, including $2.3-million in donated goods, from limos to ballpoint pens.

Those were the days, eh? When men were men and multinational corporations were generous. Thanks to Van Loan for reminding Canadians that Brian Mulroney wasn’t shy about gifts from big business—though maybe he didn’t mean it that way.

So, at least one of the world’s mysteries has been solved. If aging hippies reminisce about Woodstock and the summer of love, then middle-aged Conservatives idly daydream about the international financial summits they used to attend.

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Image: parl.gc.ca