Globe and Mail - The First Ladies primary job for wives of G20 leaders: Do no harm

This weekend, the spouses of the G20 leaders will nibble on local fruit at the top of the CN Tower, learn how to bead moccasins from Algonquin leaders and put on their most-practised smiles for the competing flash bulbs of photographers. But their more important task is to uphold the unofficial Hippocratic oath of the political spouse: Do no harm. Spouses may have greater influence than ever on the way their partners govern at home, but when abroad, they must adhere to rigid rules on how to conduct themselves at international summits. "Their basic job is not to do damage," Gil Troy, a professor of history at McGill University, says. Mr. Troy cites a memo written by U.S. president Richard Nixon in 1972, where he considered bringing his wife on a state visit. "If Pat comes to China, she's coming as a prop," Mr. Nixon wrote. Not a lot has changed since then, Prof. Troy says.