Could come out of the next election.
I looked at the last election results from BC a couple of days ago and there were quite a few ridings where the Liberals and NDP could have won over the Conservatives. This election might move some of those votes into another camp.
With the softwood lumber issue hitting BC the most it is an import item and one that the NDP doesn't seem capable of utilizing. So until someone can pick up the ball it all seems quite a toss up.
For a second week in a row "The House" commented on the Liberals and David Orchard in talks, although there is nothing in MSM about this..
An article that I just found on the internet is quite informative on the softwood lumber dispute.(If it is too long then just go to the end.) From the date it appears that it was published in 2002.
THE NAFTA AND THE SOFTWOOD LUMBER DISPUTE:
WHAT KIND OF CANADA-US PARTNERSHIP?
Softwood lumber has constituted the
second most important Canadian export sector after automotive products and one of Canada’s largest industries. British Columbia and Quebec account respectively for about 60 and 20 per cent of Canadian lumber exports. In 1999, Canadian exports of softwood lumber to the United States amounted to C$ 10.7 billion, accounting for 70 per cent of Canada’s lumber production.8 Trade disputes in agricultural and commodity products, as is the case with softwood lumber, often take a further political dimension as they affect large numbers of citizens, often concentrated within regions, which make their votes count even more. In Canada, it has been estimated that more than 300,000 workers have been directly or indirectly affected by the conflict,and 350 communities have been dependent on the forest sector as their primary source of employment.9
Concluding Remarks
As to the essential problem for Canada of its exports to the United States being liable to retaliatory measures, it was clear by the mid-1980s that the definitions of ‘dumping,’ ‘subsidy,’ ‘injury,’ and ‘industry’ in US law and practice had become sufficiently flexible to accommodate virtually any petition for trade remedy. Despite the results of successive multilateral trade negotiations, such definitions remain sufficiently elusive to allow US authorities considerable leeway to impose retaliatory measures. Canadian industries should thus be aware that continued access to the American market depends critically on not exceeding some explicit or implicit market share. That market forces are responsible for shifts in market share does not appear to be a sustainable defense before US authorities, at least in politically visible cases such as Softwood Lumber.72
http://www.unites.uqam.ca/gric/pdf/Cahier_Gagne.pdfHTML copy
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:1lKs4ELTN9IJ:www.unites.uqam.ca/gric/pdf/Cahier_Gagne.pdf+softwood+nafta+byrd+weyerhaeuser&hl=en
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