Harper not to attend AIDS conference even though it's hosted in Canada!

Harper won't attend global AIDS summit: report World leaders are set to attend a major global summit on AIDS in Toronto this summer, but Canada's prime minister is unlikely to be among them.

The conference is held every two years and is expected to attract 20,000 scientists, journalists, community leaders, AIDS activists and people who are living with the disease. Gene Long, a spokesman for the 16th annual International AIDS conference, said an invitation was sent "to the Prime Minister's Office to participate in the opening, to have the Prime Minister welcome the delegates and to open the conference.'' But he recently "received a letter that he (Harper) would not be attending," Long told the Globe and Mail in a report published Friday. 

Harper's spokeswoman Sandra Buckler said she was unaware that her boss had declined the invitation to the August conference. "We never confirm the prime minister's schedule until we get closer to an event that we're going to do,'' she told the Globe. It is the third time Canada has played host to the prestigious summit and there are rumours, which could not be confirmed Thursday, that former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates are planning to attend. Both men have devoted time and money to help in the battle against AIDS through their respective charitable foundations. 

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney spoke about the effort to combat the diesease when he addressed the 1989 meeting in Montreal. The decision by former prime minister Jean Chretien to skip the same conference in 1996 caused Nelson Mandela, South Africa's president at the time, to pull out. Chretien's absence was termed a national embarrassment and a signal that Canada did not believe it was important for a head of government or a head of state to be at the opening. Long said Harper's apparent absence could pose something of a problem. - Ya think? "There is a protocol issue when there are visiting heads of state in an official function to be greeted by the prime minister,'' he told the Globe.

*by CTV.ca News Staff, CTV.ca