There is much talk about the 23 month lock in period for the softwood deal and the option for the Americans to pull out after this time. Try to follow along.
Month 0 – July 2006 – softwood deal struck
Month 5 – December 2006 – $995 Liberal Party Leadership convention (I have to put that $995 in ‘cuz it’s so damn expensive)
Months 11 to 17 – June 2007 to December 2007 – Liberals set a bit of policy (estimated as 6 months to a year following leadership convention)
Month 18 – 21 – January 2008 to April 2008 – Tories drop 2008 budget in early 2008 which might be looked at as a good time for left wing parties to take down the government on the money bill.
Month 23 – June 2008 – Softwood deal option can be excercised
Month 19 to 23 – February 2008 to June 2008 – Potential Canadian election timeframe if the Liberals feel comfy. (Note it could always happen sooner but this might be the first reasonable attempt for taking down the Tories)
Month 29 – November 2008 – American Elections (which Republicans stand a decent chance of losing unless they find Osama bin Laden)
Month 31 – January 2009 – New President of USA sworn in.
Did you see that? Let’s look closer at 2008.
The option to cancel the softwood deal happens after the Liberals elect a new leader and at a time many pundits think the Tory minority may be taken down but BEFORE George W. is gone. This gives him a nice chance to bitchslap Canada if we put Liberals back in power.
Sweet!!! That would make my Smackdown list for sure!!