Canada and U.S softwood Lumber Dispute

After exporting the lumber from Canada and U.S back and forth for many years the government finally put a tariff on the softwood lumber from Canada. For a long time people have said that the Canadian Government Softwood lumber industry was being unfairly subsidized by the government. 

British Columbia was especially hit hard by this new tariff because they are the largest lumber-exporting province. After all of the North American Free Trade Agreement in favor of Canada, the Americans were continuing to bring in the tariffs. The Americans plan was basically to bring new rulings by NAFTA and launch new claims through the World Trade Organization.  Sometime in August 2005 the World Trade Organization ruled in favor of the Americans claim that it's lumber industry was basically going down hill because of unfair subsidizing from the Canadian Softwood Lumber exports, and Canada appealed the ruling. 

About a year later the American and Canadian negotiators came up with a new idea. It was that the Americans would lift it's 10 % duty and refund it for 80% of more than$5 billion collected from Companies over the past few years. In return the Canadians would give back 34%  of the American market, and also collect a tax that would stop companies from exceeding the quota. 

In the end the American lumber industry would keep $1 billion in duties taken away from the Canadian companies since 2002. 

The Expansion of Economic Globalization

Gross Domestic Product- The total market value of all goods and services produced in one country in about 1 year

The World Trade Organization- An international agency that encourages trade between nations

Tariff-  a tax that is imposed on a product when that item is imported into a country

Subsidy- Financial aid given by the government to an individual or a group

The Group of Eight- It is a group of eight leading industrialized nations, which are, Canada, France, Germany, ITaly, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, and the U.S.A. They meet to discuss economic policies. 

La Francophonie- a French-speaking person, especially in a region where two or more languages are spoken

Transnational Corporations-  a multinational corporations that operate in more than one country

Economic Globalization

EXCHANGE RATE: It is a price where the currency of one country can be exchanged for another country's currency

WORLD BANK: It's an organization whose focus is on a foreign exchange reserves and balances a trade

INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND: It was set up to lower stuff like trade barriers between countries and to somewhat stabalize currencies by monitoring the foreign exchange systems. 

FREE MARKET ECONOMY: Is where decisions are made by individuals or organization seeking their own advantage. 

FREE TRADE: Interchange of goods and services

NAFTA

Who: It is the North American Free Trade Agreement

What: NAFTA created the largest free trade area in the world. This trade agreement was between the U.S.A, Canada, and Mexico. It was designed to bring down tariffs. 

 

Where: It was in Canada, U.S.A and Mexico

When: January 1 1994

Why: To eliminate all taxes paid on trading goods between these 3 countries

Difference Between American and Canadian Government

Steven Harper is the Leader of our Country, which is Canada. The parties play a very important role in the government. The politcal party sets agendas for the the Prime Minister/ President, they nominate candidates for the office, they monitor the work of elected representatives and much more. The Politcal Party systems are in charge of the following: The relationship between the politcal parties in the legislature, the legislatures internal organization, stability and dynamics. The Executive Council is made up of a Premier and a Cabinet there role is to put government policy into practise, the Premier is the head of the Executive Council and he chooses who is going to be the Cabinet. The Cabinets role is to basically listen to what the Premier tells him to do, but they also have big responsibilities and roles some of which are they get to have a final say on a wide variety of issues related to day to day operations for the government, they also represent there commitees views. The Speakers role is well mainly fulfill it's title, which is basically speak for the the President/ Prime Minister in all of the assemblys. The oppositions role in the government is to critize the government and propose improvements. The oppositions are not part of any Government Pary though, but they introduce themselves as an alternative party. Alberta currently has 2 opposition parties, 1 is the liberal and the other one is the Alberta new Democratic Party. They are called the third party in the assembly. Generally the Canadians will vote around every 4-5 years. We however are not like the Americans because we do not have a fixed date on when we will vote. When the people of Canada feel like we need someone new to take over we will then hold an election.
Barack Obama is the leader of America. He was just barely elected and it was a pretty big thing because he was the first african american person to ever win an election in America. He is also one of the youngest presidents ever elected. The American Government also has different parties than the Canadian Government. The American Government has three levels, there is the Executive Branch- this is what category their president falls into and also his cabinets that he chose by himself and they mainly agree with him on all of the issues, then there is the Legislative Branch- This is the House of Representatives and the Senate, if the president wants to inforce a new law then he has to have 2/3 of the congress votes for the law to even be recongnized, this limits the presidents power significantly, then there is the Judicial Branch- they get to decided what is and what isn't constitutional, the supreme court is in charge of this branch and normally the president will choose someone that is sympathetic to his agenda but also the Congress has to approve of his descision and they have to like them also. The Americans are also different to the Canadian Government in how and when they vote. The Americans have a set date when they vote. They vote every four years on a set date and they vote on a tuesday in november every single year. They vote on tuesday's because back in the day people went to church on sunday went to the polls of monday and voted on tuesday and went home on wednesday, they just vote on tuesday to follow traditions.

Oka Crisis Timeline

It started and ended in March 1990 and ended in September 26 1990. Here are some events that happened in the time being.

March 8 1989- The Golf Course Club announced that they were going to build a Golf Course on the Mohawks first nation's land

March 10 1990- The Mohawks first nations barricaded a road and planned to build a golf course on the land.

March 11 1990- The Mohawk people started to occupy there wooded land to protect their burial ground

April 1 1990- 300 Mohawk people opposed to the expansion in the peaceful village of oka

July 11- The Police intervened because they thought there was criminal activity around the barricade

April 27- The federal government and the Mohawk Council held a meeting discussing land purchase program, this is all mainly over the golf course, which is clearly part of the purchase

July 28- The Enviromental minister ordered the oka corporations to stop all work places that they mention. But the Oka people ignored the warning

August 16- People begin to start talking about peace

August 20- A company in Quebec called the "van doos" brought three barricades and arrived at the final barricade

August 27- Negotiations are called off, and they send the army to take down the barricades

August 29- The Mohawks at the Bridge Blockade negotiated an end to there protest

January 26- Chief Simon was replaced

September 20- The main barricade was taken down

September 25- The final end to the crisis happened, a warrior walked around with a long stick setting off flares to send a signal if there were any escapes in the area

September 26- The Oka Crisis was over, the Mohawks threw there guns in the fire and burned tobacco and went back to the reserve

If I got to meet Mr. Obama

If I got to meet Mr. Obama I would tell him that President Bush had the right idea and that he should keep going on the lines that he was on. He made a few wrong choices here and there, such as he chose Dick Cheney who owned alot of almost illegal companies. Seriously though who doesn't make mistakes.  I really don't have anything that I would tell him to change.