<div id="subtitle">G-7 NOTEBOOK: Geithner and Bernanke are no-shows but handful of ministers try dogsledding</div><div><p>How do you say "mush" in Italian?</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>"It was wonderful," King said.</p><p>Canadian central bank Governor Mark Carney panicked when his sled took off without his guide.</p><p>"Hey, don't leave me!" Carney yelled to his guide as his dogs took off in the wrong direction.</p><p>Flaherty said he hoped that Geithner and Bernanke would try it once they hear how it went for the others.</p><p>"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."</p><p>Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan and Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa were also signed up for rides.</p><p>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.</p><p>"It was just gorgeous. It was beautiful," Flaherty said.</p><p>___</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>All the food was being prepared by Ray Lovell, a Canadian chef famed for his Nunavut dishes.</p><p>No word on what the vegetarians were being served.</p><p>___</p><p>What'd you get? A whale or an inukshuk?</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Less eagerly greeted was the packet of peppered char jerky — hunks of dried fish from the salmon family.</p><p>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.</p><p>___</p><p>Associated Press Writers Jane Wardell and Martin Crutsinger contributed to this report.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=68537347&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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