The sellout continues

Politics Watch reports that Deceivin' Stephen apparently didn't manage to hand enough over in his initial softwood sellout to appease the U.S., and is now looking to sign an even worse deal in order to avoid the litigation that his previous giveaway was supposed to end:

Almost a year after it was signed, Prime Minister Stephen Harper rose in the House of Commons Monday to defend the softwood lumber agreement with the U.S. after reports on the weekend that Canada may consider making concessions to the U.S...

On Saturday, the Globe and Mail reported Trade Minister David Emerson said opinion in government is divided over whether Ottawa should fight in court a U.S. complaint that some provincial aid programs to the lumber industry are subsidies and the Canadian companies are not paying enough export taxes under the 2006 deal...

Emerson's comments to the Globe outraged NDP leader Jack Layton who asked in question period, "Why do governments continue to make concessions when negotiations are over?"

"We're seeing the United States attacking our provinces for simply trying to manage their natural resources and what does the government do? They start looking at the idea of adding export taxes to this sector and that will cost us more than the tens of thousands of jobs that we've already lost."

Seeing as that the Cons have proven beyond doubt before that they don't much care how their deals affect actual producers within Canada, the result of any negotiation figures to be yet another disaster - particularly with the Cons no less desperate to claim any type of accomplishment (however negative) than they were in signing the initial deal.

But if Canadians realize just how eager the Cons are to concede every point the U.S. thinks to bring up, they don't figure to stand for that type of relationship for long. And hopefully today's attention will force the Cons to back off their latest move to that effect.