Softwood in all the wrong places

The Cons have officially declared that they think there's enough support for a softwood capitulation to put the question to Parliament. But as noted by CBC's article, there's no indication just how far the Cons relaxed their standards from the 95% approval requirement built into the initial agreement. And it wouldn't be too surprising if the standard for "support" was similarly loosened to "any company who neither hung up on nor swore at David Emerson".

Meanwhile, Canada's industry group doesn't approve of the Cons' Parliamentary tactics any more than their strongarming of lumber producers:

David Gray, a western spokesman for Canada's Free Trade Lumber Council, said he was disappointed Harper is making the deal subject to a confidence vote.

"If I was in politics what I would suggest to the opposition is that they just walk out and refuse to vote and leave this for the Conservative government to wear," said Gray, who runs the Mill and Timber Co. Ltd. of Vancouver.

Needless to say, Harper hasn't made any friends by shoving the deal down producers' throats. The question now is whether the industry will respond with similarly generous tactics when the next election rolls around.

Update: Scott Tribe has more on the parliamentary implications.