Prime Minister Stephen Harper recieves a standing ovation after announcing a softwood lumber deal with the United States, in the House of Commons in Ottawa Thursday April 27, 2006.(CP / Tom Hanson)
Posted on 04/27/2006 7:51:54 PM PDT by NorthOf45
Prime Minister Stephen Harper recieves a standing ovation after announcing a softwood lumber deal with the United States, in the House of Commons in Ottawa Thursday April 27, 2006.(CP / Tom Hanson)
Ping
After reading the article, the impression I get is that this whole business is exceedingly complicated, and who knows who benefited and who gets the short end?
The Canadian Liberals are screaming, but of course they would do so in any case. They were bad sports in office and they will be worse sports now.
Hopefully, it's a fair deal for all concerned.
Canada ping.
America gets wood!
Kerry: Bush owns a wood company
I can't imagine why the Canadians would have comprimised on the illegally collected tarrifs. They are entitled to every penny.
Dean: Halliburton owns all American and Canadian lumber!
May the large US mills all be abandoned for what their administrators did to the American and Canadian people. And may oil rise to the price level where it will be unaffordable to send another US board load to China.
Get self-sufficient and let the industry-hopping spoiled brats do what they wish.
In this, Republicans differ not one whit from Democrats -- and, I daresay, nor do Tories and Grits.
One group that definitely got the short end for the past ten years has been Americans buying new homes made of wood. The price of such a home has been increased by about two to three thousand dollars because of the tariffs on and blocking out of lumber imports.
No agreement is going to make either party (or parties) 100 percent happy. But what Harper has done is to find a workable solution that gets the best deal possible for Canada, and while the Liberals, led by their smug pompous ass Bill Graham will rant and rave and scream about it (as is the NDP's Jack Layton who I am sure is actually that guy "The Video Professor" who gives out free Windows CDs on TV), the fact is it is far better to achieve an agreement that puts the conflict behind both the U.S. and Canada, moves forward, and returns a massive amount of cash back to Canada. Bill Graham was blubbering away in the House of Commons last night about "it should be FIVE billion, not FOUR billion, where is the extra MONEY?!?", I was hoping that some Conservative might have said "Bill, don't you know about the exchange rate? 4 billion U.S. equals just about 5 billion Canadian!"
Bravo to Harper and the Conservatives. The Liberals would have preferred to NEVER have an agreement, that way they would always have a fresh supply of venom for their anti-U.S. glands and fangs.
Harper struck a very acceptable deal for Canada. Quick action and a surprisingly fair deal for Canada given the short timeframe Harper got this done in.
Word is he was in Bush's ear constantly about getting this done. His relentless badgering paid off.
BONUS: Canadian Libs are squealing loudly and they look completely incompetent for not being able to accomplish this.
This just goes to show that diplomacy achieves a lot more than abuse. There are other groups in this world who could learn a lesson from this.
I think that on this issue the Libs were taking the same approach that socialists take with poverty issues. IMO they never wanted the dispute to be resolved because it made great fodder for the Yank-bashers.
Exactly. Just as the steel protectionism has ruined it for car buyers and sugar protectionism makes American pop taste like cr@p.
To which I would respond, "Well, if you didn't create the gun registry we'd be a billion ahead!"
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