RE: A response to Norm Greenfield from Jim Love

Joe, Jim, Tracy, and DD et al...

Americans don't care about the softwood lumber issue at all. Why? They have no idea, nor interest in finding out about it. This is especially true after Katrina.

Canadians want, and would be better served by a new political entity, if that new entity would address the issues that deal with day to day issues that affect Canadians with creativity and vision.

The new party does not have the money it will take to get your phone call even answered by an editor at any of the Portland newspaper. This would have been true even five or six weeks ago. Let alone now with Katrina having taken a swipe at the USA.

Unless the party has some limitless pockets to draw from this is not a strategy worth considering. It is worth killing. I agree with you whole heartedly when you said '...new ideas that we think Canadians are looking for and deserve. It proves that Canadians can stand up for our own interests.' One would be to fast track the expansion of our ports, impose an export tax on our raw logs, and to maintain our own control over how we manage our own natural resources. Whether that is with a stumpage tax or not. That is up to us.

If the government of Canada, our Ambassador to the US, or the international unions and logging companies involved in the lumber industry cannot get the message across, how does an upstart party with limited resources expect to do it? Keep in mind the majority of the lumber companies on the coast of BC are owned by foreign investors with some very large American companies being at the top of the list.

When you do a site search of the New York Times on September 3, 2005, you get nothing about the efforts that Canada is putting in to helping the victims of Katrina.

What you do get at the head of the search is story about the cancellation of the trip to the White House of Chinese President Hu Jintao and that China has offered the United States $5 million in aid for the hurricane victims.

In the second story that comes up you find in the third from last paragraph that ' So they waited until help, in the form of a rescue team of police and emergency workers from around the United States and Canada, finally came.'

The seventh story you get is about ' Jenny Potter scored twice to lead the United States past Sweden 2-0 Saturday, sending the Americans to the final of the women's Four Nations Cup against Canada for the fourth straight year.'

We do find that Qatar pledged $100 million in assistance for the victims of Katrina, with a hyperlink for people to go to a page to find out all about Qatar. Then there is, 'Rice singled out Sri Lanka for praise for making a contribution even as it struggles to recover from the tsunami and earthquake disaster of last December.. By the last paragraph we, Canada, are listed among many, having offered help.

In the L.A. Times and article published August 31, 2005, it said ' Trade tensions between the U.S. and Canada heated up Tuesday after a World Trade Organization panel supported Washington's decision to impose hefty penalties on Canadian softwood lumber firms accused of dumping their products on the U.S. market, ' with the following statement 8 paragraphs down, ' But U.S. lumber importers, home builders and consumer groups side with Canada, arguing that the duties are unwarranted and increase the cost of a new home by at least $1,000.' L.A., is the centre of the largest market for BC lumber products.In an article published by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on August 23, 2005, titled, 'Canada considers retaliatory tariffs in softwood dispute with US,' it is nothing more than a cut and paste from a Reuters news piece taken from a Regina Saskatchewan source. Nothing in it about the extra cost this dispute has caused the American home buyer. Seattle is one of the places in the USA that is paying the extra cost, yet is one of the roots of the dispute in the first place.

In the The Kalamazoo Gazette of August 19, 2005 an article entitled, 'Free trade in oil, fair trade in softwood,' is three paragraphs long, telling nothing about the extra costs Americans are paying in the building of their homes, directly related to this trade dispute.

My point?

If in fact, 'Americans ARE becoming aware of the softwood lumber issue,' how are they doing that?

Do a search of the CNN site. Nothing.

Do a search of the Washington Post. Nothing.

Do a search of the Wall Street Journal. Something, but not much more than the nothing in the popular mass media. Trust me, not many people out side of Wall Street read the journal, and many of them already know the fight over Softwood is dumb, for Americans.

Canadians are looking for and deserve alternative ideas. Lost efforts trying to teach the Americans about a neighbour they have lived next to for 300 years, and have no idea of what we are,who we are, and what we are, are not that.