Ten year old Luke McAndless (Luke) of Vancouver Canada is taking on an American giant, McDonalds, to protest America's collection of about 4 billion dollars in duties imposed on Canadian softwood lumber. His call for a one day boycott of McDonalds has received a lot of support in Canada, from everybody except perhaps Canada's long suffering cattle industry.
Some in America would suggest bending Luke over a knee and spanking him, but not me. In a world where entire countries, such as France, are both gutless and lacking in convictions, here is a boy that has taken a stand and shown a little grit; and as McDonalds is on the political left in America, big loss.
The problem with Luke is that he doesn't understand why America is imposing these duties, and so let me explain the situation to him in terms a little boy might understand. Canada has a fair trade agreement with America called NAFTA and America caught Canada cheating in its obligations under that agreement. Much of Canada's timber is on public land and Canada has lowered its stumpage fee to make that timber cheaper than American timber, which means that Canadian companies have an unfair advantage over American companies when selling Canadian lumber to the public in the United States. The duties America imposed on Canadian softwood lumber, which is an 18% tariff, is just America's way of not letting the cheater, Canada, profit from being dishonest.
Unfortunately, this is a grown-up dispute where America has only two choices; we can impose a financial penalty on Canadian softwood lumber, which we have, or tear up NAFTA and expel Canadian lumber from the American market. America can flourish without Canada, Canada would crumble-up and die without America.
Author’s bio: Gutheinz is a former military intelligence officer and aviator and a retired NASA Office of Inspector General senior special agent. He is a criminal defense attorney licensed by 10 courts to include the United States Supreme Court; and a college instructor for both the University of Phoenix and Alvin Community College. He holds 6 degrees and 8 teaching credentials. He is the recipient of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency Career Achievement Award. He is the past top graduate (Honor Graduate) from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center's Criminal Investigators Basic Course. His prior writings include: In Search of the Goodwill Moon Rocks, Geotimes Magazine; There Will be a Day After Tomorrow, SpaceDaily.com and Hizb-ut-Tahrir is a Scary Group that Needed to be Outlawed, The Conservative Voice.
