Actually, to put it completely in perspective, I seem to recall Jean Chretien not attending the last AIDS conference in Canada - I'll try to source that out.
http://www.torontosun.com/News/2006/08/14/1755726.html "So it’s no big deal to miss the AIDS rally – or it wasn’t when former PM Jean Chretien was a no-show at the 1996 AIDS conference in Vancouver." I guess since he's liberal, he can get away with it.