G8 was formerly G7, who decided at the beginning the number of the participants?

Question

why didn't they stop at G6 or G5? was there some political opportunity including canada or italy in the group?

Answer 1

it is based on economic power. we the members of the G8 donate the most money to the rest of the world.

note that all but one are dominate christian nations.....

from the old g8 website. russia is now over it for a while.

http://www.g8.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagen...

Answer 2

The G8 was started in 1974 as "The Library Group" as a response to the oil crises in the 1970's.  It originally consisted of France, (West) Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US - all among the most powerful industrialized nations.  The group became known as the Group of 6, or G6, in 1975.

In 1976, Canada was added, and it became the Group of 7 (G7).  Russia joined in 1997, and thus it is now the Group of 8 (G8).

Answer 3

G8 is really a G(1+6)+1 where:

1 is the USA, 6 are US pawns, 1 is Russia.

Very soon it will be G9: China will join because of its power.

It should be a bipartisan decision of all existing members.

In fact, as I said, it will be a decision of just 2 independent members: Russia is "pro", US still "contra".