Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Conservative Negotiators Need Viagra

If for no other reason than to ensure that they stand upright. The more we find out about the Softwood Lumber "deal" that Harper and Emerson have been bragging about, the worse it gets.

The NDP has been researching the deal's clauses, and has discovered that Harper's "wonderful deal" that will save taxpayers millions of dollars leaves the Canadian Taxpayer on the hook for any shortfall resulting from lumber companies refusing to sign onto this deal.

We aren't talking about a few million dollars, either, but hundreds of millions of dollars:

The call comes one week after the announcement by the Harper government that it fell short on the number of softwood industry approvals needed for a buy-in – but refused to release the vote totals. Julian estimates that the Canadian government will have to send a cheque to Washington for at least $152 million (m) if the Minister misses his mark by 15 % and that number will rise dramatically with each company unwilling to drop their softwood-lawsuits.


Let me see if I understand this - for every company that doesn't "sign on" to this deal by dropping its litigation in the United States, the Canadian Taxpayer is on the hook.

Now, let's talk about principles, Mr. Jackson. So far, Conservative "principles" seem to have become an aggregation of arrogance, entitlement and bad government. We have a party that claims a "made in Canada" environment policy that so far is the policy equivalent of vaporware; a trade "deal" with the United States that must have BushCo laughing all the way to the bank, while Canadian taxpayers carry the freight; a "peace mission" in Afghanistan that was extended by Conservative fiat; Military purchases being taken out of the public accountability and open bid processes in the name of "security". Yes Mr. Jackson, you support a wonderfully "principled" party - sadly the key principle appears to corruption and dishonesty on a scale that make Brian Mulroney look like an honest broker.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, imagine that, Harpercrit lied again!

I was talking to a very wealthy individual last night and I was not surprised to find out that he backs Harper completely, and I thought this guy had critical thinking skills. When I brought up the fact (along with examples) of Harpers lies to the Canadian people he actually said that CBC was distorting the truth about Harper and that Harper has never made any false statements. I really hope that he doesn't represent any majority opinion.

SB

Anonymous said...

What SB says is what's truely scary about Tories in that they seem to requre blind and unquestioning support of the leader. It would seem that this is why the Conservatives look so confused if someone presents a differing point of view, they just aren't capable of seeing anything but what they, or their leader believe. They also seem to be willfully blind to these opinions and that their leadership or party could possibly be wrong.

JN

www.evilscientist.ca

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