G-7 NOTEBOOK: Geithner and Bernanke are no-shows but handful of ministers try dogsledding

G-7 NOTEBOOK: G-7 ministers go ‘mush’ on dogsleds

IQALUIT, Nunavut — How do you say “mush” in Italian?

To give the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank presidents a true Arctic experience, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty arranged to have them spend some time Friday afternoon dogsledding on frozen Frobisher Bay.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and most of the other G-7 finance ministers and central bankers took a pass, but Italian Finance Minister Giullo Tremonti and Bank of Italy Governor Mario Draghi tried their hands at it as did Bank of England Governor Mervyn King.

“It was wonderful,” King said.

Canadian central bank Governor Mark Carney panicked when his sled took off without his guide.

“Hey, don’t leave me!” Carney yelled to his guide as his dogs took off in the wrong direction.

Flaherty said he hoped that Geithner and Bernanke would try it once they hear how it went for the others.

“They are not here yet,” Flaherty said. “Maybe they’ll get a chance tomorrow. Once they hear the stories at dinner tonight around the fire they might get more interested. I hope they do. It’s beautiful.”

Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan and Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa were also signed up for rides.

Flaherty said they couldn’t have picked a nicer day as it wasn’t as cold or windy as Thursday. Nice for the Arctic translated into around minus 17 degrees Celsius or 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

“It was just gorgeous. It was beautiful,” Flaherty said.

If dogsledding and mounds of snow and near-zero temperatures weren’t enough, the Canadians also used the menu to highlight the Arctic experience for the G-7 officials.

Dinner Friday night featured Arctic char, a northern Canada delicacy with a taste similar to salmon. The meal had a surf-and-turf flavor because it also included roast caribou medallions.

The starter for Saturday’s lunch was “hearty” musk-ox minestrone soup followed by caribou tourtiere, a French-Canadian meat pie dish often served at Christmas dinners.

All the food was being prepared by Ray Lovell, a Canadian chef famed for his Nunavut dishes.

No word on what the vegetarians were being served.

What’d you get? A whale or an inukshuk?

Reporters arriving for the meeting were presented with a small goodie bag highlighting the traditional industry of Iqaluit, a former whaling and fur-trading outpost.

Among the most coveted items were the small soapstone figurines made by Inuit sculptors, with journalists comparing what they got in a lucky dip that included small beluga whales and the traditional inukshuk figure: the stone landmarks or cairns found in the Arctic region from Alaska to Greenland, probably for navigation or to mark food caches.

Less eagerly greeted was the packet of peppered char jerky — hunks of dried fish from the salmon family.

The bags also contained a ribbon of seal fur, a tiny token that sent a bigger message after European Union nations last year approved a ban on imports of seal products in a bid to force Canada to end its annual seal hunt.

Associated Press Writers Jane Wardell and Martin Crutsinger contributed to this report.