Mr. Harper Goes to Washington

Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Washington last week where he met with U.S. president George W. Bush for 45 minutes. It is reported that Harper and Bush discussed the new softwood lumber deal, border security measures and Harper’s pledge to increase military spending by some $16 billion over the next several years. They are also reported to have discussed North Korea.

Prior to the meeting it was reported that Bush was very pleased with the announced increase in military spending. The major U.S. arms manufacturers, which enjoy a special relationship with the U.S. president, are expected to reap the lion’s share of the profits from this increased expenditure.

Despite Harper’s demonstration of loyalty and obedience, there is no indication that he received any concessions from Bush. President Bush stated that he understood Canada’s concerns over new U.S. border-crossing regulations, but that any extension to the January 1, 2007 deadline was in the hands of the U.S. Congress.

With regard to the softwood lumber deal, Harper emerged from the meetings to state that there would be no more negotiations whether the Canadian lumber industry liked the agreement or not. Since then, all but a couple of the biggest lumber producers have rejected the deal which would set severe restrictions on Canadian lumber exports to the U.S. and allow the U.S. government to keep $1 billion in tariffs which it illegally applied to Canadian lumber. The deal requires the agreement of corporations accounting for 95 percent of lumber exports in order to become law. At this time it does not appear that the deal will go through. It would appear that Mr. Harper visited Washington cap in hand, but returned to Canada very much empty-handed.

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