The 14th G7 Summit was held in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada between June 19 and 21, 1988. The venue for the summit meetings was the

Metro Toronto Convention Centre Metro Toronto Convention Centre (originally and still colloquially Metro Convention Centre, and sometimes MTCC), is a convention complex located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada along Front Street (Toronto), Front Street West in the former Railway Land ...

Downtown Toronto Downtown Toronto is the main central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Stre ...

.Japan,

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( MOFA)
Summit Meetings in the Past.
Accessed 2009-03-11. 2009-04-30. The

Group of Seven The Group of Seven (G7) is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member". It is official ...

( G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries:

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West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

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Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, the

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, the

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, Canada (since 1976)Saunders, Doug
"Weight of the world too heavy for G8 shoulders,"
''Globe and Mail'' (Toronto). July 5, 2008 -- n.b., the G7 becomes the

Group of Eight The Group of Eight (G8) was an inter-governmental political forum from 1997 until 2014. It had formed from incorporating Russia into the Group of Seven, or G7, and returned to its previous name after Russia left in 2014. The forum originated ...

( G7) with the inclusion of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

starting in 1997. and the

President of the European Commission The president of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union (EU). The President of the Commission leads a Cabinet of Commissioners, referred to as the College, collectively account ...

(starting officially in 1981).Reuters
"Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?"
July 3, 2008. The summits were not meant to be linked formally with wider international institutions; and in fact, a mild rebellion against the stiff formality of other international meetings was a part of the genesis of cooperation between France's President Giscard d'Estaing and West Germany's Chancellor

Helmut Schmidt Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. Before becoming Cha ...

as they conceived the first

Group of Six The Group of Seven (G7) is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member". It is officiall ...

( G6) summit in 1975. Unlike the relatively low key summit at

Château Montebello The Fairmont Le Château Montebello, formerly and commonly known as the Château Montebello, is a historic hotel and resort complex in Montebello, Quebec, Canada. The resort complex includes a large game reserve and a large wooden structure. The w ...

in 1981, the Toronto summit was held under tight security with involvement of the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

(RCMP) and

Metro Toronto Police The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is a municipal police force in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the primary agency responsible for providing law enforcement and policing services in Toronto. Established in 1834, it was the first local police ser ...

. Canada was the first member of the G7 or G8 to host both this kind of Summit and an

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in the same calendar year. In February,

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, hosted the

1988 Winter Olympics The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games (french: XVes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Calgary 1988 ( bla, Mohkínsstsisi 1988; sto, Wîchîspa Oyade 1988 or ; cr, Otôskwanihk 1998/; srs, Guts� ...

. Canada would do this again 22 years later when they hosted the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

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and then the

36th G8 summit The 36th G8 summit was held in Muskoka, Ontario, Canada, on June 25–26, 2010. In this year's meeting, the G8 leaders agreed in reaffirming the group's essential and continuing role in international affairs and "assertions of new-found relevan ...

and the 4th G20 summit in

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and Toronto respectively.

Leaders at the summit

G-7 Economic Summit Leaders at the University of Toronto

The G7 is an unofficial annual forum for the leaders of Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The 14th G7 summit was the first summit for

Italian Prime Minister The Prime Minister of Italy, officially the President of the Council of Ministers ( it, link=no, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri), is the head of government of the Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is ...

Ciriaco De Mita Luigi Ciriaco De Mita (; 2 February 1928 – 26 May 2022) was an Italian politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy from April 1988 to July 1989. A member of the Christian Democracy (DC), De Mita served as its secretary and leader from Ma ...

and was the last summit for

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Ronald Reagan. It was also the first and only summit for

Japanese Prime Minister The prime minister of Japan ( Japanese: 内閣総理大臣, Hepburn: ''Naikaku Sōri-Daijin'') is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its Ministers of Stat ...

Noboru Takeshita.

Participants

These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:

Issues

The summit was intended as a venue for resolving differences among its members. As a practical matter, the summit was also conceived as an opportunity for its members to give each other mutual encouragement in the face of difficult economic decisions. Issues which were discussed at this summit included: * International Economic Policy Cooperation * Multilateral Trading System / Uruguay Round * Newly Industrialized Economies * Developing Countries and Debt * Environment * Future Summits * Other Issues * Annex on Structural Reform

Criticism

The Toronto-based Canadian Organization for the Rights of Prostitutes issued a number of press releases leading up to the economic summit pointing out that the local vice squads were tasked with cleaning up the city streets through a coordinated crackdown on

sex worker A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.Oxford English Dictionary, "sex worker" According to one view, sex work is d ...

s. This crackdown and economic summit took place in Toronto amidst the tumultuous restructuring of the Canadian Criminal Code to outlaw commercial sex by criminalizing communication for the purpose of obtaining commercial sexual services in public. Similar crackdowns against other street-involved communities (drug users, the homeless, gays and lesbians, transgender people) continue today in the lead up to large economic summits like the G7, IMF,

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

as well as sporting events like the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

, the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

, and

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

Gallery

File:Mulroney 2011.JPG, Canada
Brian Mulroney,

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

File:Reagan Mitterrand 1984 (cropped).jpg, France
François Mitterrand,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F074398-0021 Kohl (cropped).jpg,

Helmut Kohl,

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

File:Ciriaco De Mita (IX).jpg, Italy

File:Noboru Takeshita 19871106.jpg, Japan

Noboru Takeshita was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1987 to 1989 during the bubble economy. Takeshita led the largest faction at the time in the Liberal Democratic Party, which he inherited from Kakuei Tanaka, from the 1980s u ...

File:Margaret Thatcher (1983).jpg, United Kingdom
Margaret Thatcher,

File:Official Portrait of President Reagan 1981-cropped.jpg, United States
Ronald Reagan,

File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F078267-0023, Bonn, Ministerpräsidenten mit EU-Kommissar Delors-CROPPED.jpg,

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

Jacques Delors Jacques Lucien Jean Delors (born 20 July 1925) is a French politician who served as the 8th President of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995. He served as Minister of Finance of France from 1981 to 1984. He was a Member of the European Par ...

, Commission President

Notes

References

* Bayne, Nicholas and Robert D. Putnam. (2000)
''Hanging in There: The G7 and G8 Summit in Maturity and Renewal.''
Aldershot, Hampshire, England:

Ashgate Publishing Ashgate Publishing was an academic book and journal publisher based in Farnham ( Surrey, United Kingdom). It was established in 1967 and specialised in the social sciences, arts, humanities and professional practice. It had an American office i ...

.
OCLC 43186692
* Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998)
''Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations.''
London:

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

. ; ;

External links

* No official website is created for any G7 summit prior to 1995 -- ''see'' the

21st G7 summit The 21st G7 summit was held on June 15–17, 1995 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The venue for this summit meeting was Summit Place in Halifax. It was labelled by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien as a "Chevrolet Summit", using a utilitarian autom ...

. *

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

G8 Research Group John James Kirton (born 1948) is professor emeritus of political science and the director and founder of the G7 Research Group, director and founder of the G20 Research Group, founder and co-director (with James Orbinski) of the Global Health Dip ...

G8 Information Centre
*

* CBC Digital Archives
"Leaders arrive at 1988 G7 Summit in Toronto,"
Broadcast Date: June 18, 1988. {{G8 summits

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

G7 summit The Group of Seven (G7) is an inter-governmental, intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated membe ...

G7 summit 1988 G7 summit 1988

1988 in international relations 1988 in Toronto June 1988 events in Canada

Leaders at the summit

Participants

Issues

Criticism

Gallery

See also

Notes

References

External links