Harper gets more grief over stalled softwood deal

[tuvor]

OTTAWA -- The Liberals turned up the softwood lumber rhetoric another notch Thursday, comparing Prime Minister Stephen Harper to an infamous appeaser in world history.

"It has been almost two months now since the prime minister declared `peace in our time' on the softwood lumber dispute," Liberal Leader Bill Graham said, referring to former British prime minister Neville Chamberlain's famous 1938 assurance to the public after meeting with Adolf Hitler.

Graham referred to a letter leaked to the Vancouver Sun earlier this week that indicated the U.S. government would use the proposed lumber accord as a tool to interfere with provincial forest management policies, especially B.C.'s new market-based timber pricing policy.

"The Americans' key demand on market-based timber pricing is a complete anathema to the largest timber-producing province in this country, the province that the trade minister comes from," Graham said, referring to International Trade Minister David Emerson.

"It is difficult to see how the talks could be going much worse."

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=66d0a679-fecc-42e7-ad6e-9fa1469c3d1e&k=81991

[Spazito]

1. LOL, love the tie to bush's "Mission Accomplished" faux pas

to Harper's softwood lumber agreement mission accomplished crap. The more Harper can be tied to bush, even in the most euphemistic way, is a good thing, imo. It is not only true, it is damaging.

[Mother Jones]

2. Especially now,

As he's desperately trying to appeal to Quebec for his majority.