Softwood deal was brewing for year or more

[tuvor]

Liberals, Mulroney, Bush Sr. had hand in crafting truce

WASHINGTON and OTTAWA -- Even as Stephen Harper announced in the House of Commons on Thursday afternoon that the long lumber war with the United States was finally over, negotiators were scrambling behind the scenes to fix a last-minute hitch.

Nothing, it seems, has ever been simple or easy about softwood lumber, a fight that has endured on and off since before Confederation.

So how then did Mr. Harper, a rookie Prime Minister with a minority government, and George W. Bush, a war-weary U.S. President with plunging poll numbers, hammer out in just 80 days a deal that many thought would never happen?

The simple answer is: they didn't. This week's historic compromise, which could take another three months to finalize, is the culmination of tireless work by a cast of dozens, dating back more than a year. It's a deal that was started by the Liberals, quietly nudged along by a chat between former prime minister Brian Mulroney and Mr. Bush's father, sidelined by the federal election and finally driven home by the new Prime Minister.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060429.SOFTWOODDEAL29/TPStory/TPNational/

(Good Christian men wouldn't take credit for something they didn't do, now, would they?)