Tommy's #1 SHANIA TWAIN SuperSite Message Board

Nicolas Sarkozy, welcome to Huntsville.

The remote Ontario town, home of the Huntsville Otters hockey team and the place where singer Shania Twain was discovered, has been named the host of the 2010 G8 summit.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement yesterday while visiting the town, located about 220 kilometres north of Toronto.

"It couldn't get any better. If you are in the tourism business, this is the Super Bowl, so to speak," said Claude Doughty, the mayor of Huntsville.

While Huntsville has served the likes of past Canadian national pond hockey champions, it has never played host to so many world leaders before.

The meeting of the leaders of the eight leading industrialized nations is expected to draw tens of thousands of people to the town of 20,000.

"We haven't done anything on the world stage," Mr. Doughty said. The mayor, who found out yesterday morning that his town's Deerhurst Resort will be hosting the G8 meeting, said he had no idea about what preparations will be involved.

"I am going to be talking to some other communities that have hosted it, just to get their perspective on things they did right and things they did wrong," he said.

But he did say the town has experience hosting many triathlons.

The prime minister said Huntsville is an "ideal location" for the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States to meet.

"Our international guests will be charmed by the uniquely Canadian beauty of the region and by the warm hospitality of Muskokans," Mr. Harper said in a news release.

On the agenda will be discussions about open markets and free trade, global action against climate change, and human rights, the prime minister indicated.

Hosting the summit will bring enormous economic benefits to the Muskoka region and beyond, Mr. Harper said.

"The 2010 G8 summit will provide short- and long-term economic benefits for the region and the province, and it will be an exceptional opportunity for Canada to advance its values and interests on the world stage," he said.

The last Canadian town to host a G8 summit was Kananaskis, Alta., in 2002. The summit generated an estimated $300 million in short-term regional economic benefits.

Mr. Doughty said the news was exciting, considering the economic challenges the area has been facing, with job losses in the automotive sector and a possible depression in the tourism industry due to surging fuel prices.

The mayor said he thought his town was chosen because its geography lends itself well to security.

"There aren't a lot of major arteries and minor backroads connecting us to other areas," he said. "So, security is easy in this area."

The town's closeness to urban areas and large accommodation probably factored into the decision, he said.

The government says the Deerhurst site met key considerations in choosing a venue, including appropriate accommodation, meeting facilities, transportation links and acceptable security conditions.

"Obviously, something of this scale is a bit of a departure from any events we have hosted in the past," said Anne White, a spokeswoman for Deerhurst Resort.

"I think Deerhurst, the town of Huntsville and Muskoka, in a larger sense, are really thrilled to have this opportunity in the spotlight," Ms. White said.

Ms. Twain, then 22, moved to Huntsville with her siblings after their parents died in a car crash in November 1987. She supported the family by performing at the resort. In 1991, she was invited to record a demo tape in Huntsville, and a legendary career was born.

The resort has about 400 rooms and can host more than 1,000 people. There are also condominium-style accommodations scattered about the property, which features a popular golf course, spa and private air strip.