Annamill, that original post is not really very accurate in its overall suggestion that Canada-US relations are "usually trouble-free". We almost always have resource-based trade disputes going on, and the softwood lumber thing is not real relevant to who won the White House. The reason it is happening now is that the five-year Softwood Lumber Agreement expired last week without an extension or new treaty in place and the American producers are of course looking for terms more favourable to them. (They can only frame it as an issue of government subsidy, namely low stumpage fees paid by timber companies that log Crown land. Probably a bigger factor in the low price of Canadian lumber in the US is the Canadian dollar being at an all-time low of 63.5 cents US, which gives us a huge free-market economy trading advantage right now..)

Incidentally, I think they're right about the stumpage fees being too low. Many environmental groups on both sides of the border are supporting the US timber producers. And the biggest "Canadian" companies benefiting are actually ...Weyerhauser, Stone Consolidated and other US multinationals.

Canada's response to Bush's shameless reneging on Kyoto has been embarrassingly wimpy. Poutine finally said something? Whoopee. Peter's right in his assessment.

Willie-O