Seems like hotel rooms don't come cheaply in Japan. The PMO figures it should get about 20 media people to go on the trip. Yeah, with fares like that, they'll be lucky to get anybody. Watch for Chretien on Japanese NHK television. Axworthy has been having a field day poking fun at the new boy's wacky foreign policy pronouncements.
Day also talks about cutting Canadian aid to African countries.
Axworthy says it doesn't make sense for a guy who supposedly wants to save government money to buy sight-unseen a costly defence system from a neighbouring country that has yet to be proven technically effective. Sixty billion dollars amounts to about six times Canada's entire military budget. It's more than the federal government spends on health, welfare and education combined. Axworthy says Day pretends to endorse family values yet is ready to sign up for a defence system that would bring on the return of the arms race and put a whole lot of families around the world in danger. And cutting aid to starving African children is hardly a good way of showing a commitment family values and to children.