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Oct. 27th, 2003 08:48 amYesterday was a beautiful sunny day. I took the kids out to watch J’s football game, while I was there, I ran into G* an old friend of his. G* had worked at Weyerhaueser for over 30 years before getting laid off with the mill closure due to the softwood lumber dispute. He’s one of ten of thousands that have been affected by the softwood lumber dispute between Canada and the US. Free trade my ass! We were totally out negotiated, and now we’re paying big time...but back to my happy story.
He’s working for a 100% Canadian company - YAY! It’s non-union, AND they pay a fair wage, AND they have excellent working standards (unions that have spiralled out of control are part of what has crippled this province) YAY! The best part is, they’re not being affected by the softwood dispute, since very little raw lumber is going to the US. Most of it is being processed up here, which means more jobs for Canadians. It also means that we’re not cutting down our forests like a bunch of fucking maniacs and selling off our raw lumber for peanuts - YAY! YAY! YAY! If more companies like this start up, maybe we’ll see a good side to the softwood dispute after all.
Canadians need to start taking better care of our natural resources. We can’t expect foreign corporations to give a shit. Most Canadians have never seen a clear cut. I hadn’t seen one until I was about 22. It’s one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen, and it seemed to go on for ever. Acres and acres of dust. Nothing was growing. Tears started streaming down my face. It’s something everyone should see at least once, just so they know, what those two innocent sounding words “clear cut” actually mean.
He’s working for a 100% Canadian company - YAY! It’s non-union, AND they pay a fair wage, AND they have excellent working standards (unions that have spiralled out of control are part of what has crippled this province) YAY! The best part is, they’re not being affected by the softwood dispute, since very little raw lumber is going to the US. Most of it is being processed up here, which means more jobs for Canadians. It also means that we’re not cutting down our forests like a bunch of fucking maniacs and selling off our raw lumber for peanuts - YAY! YAY! YAY! If more companies like this start up, maybe we’ll see a good side to the softwood dispute after all.
Canadians need to start taking better care of our natural resources. We can’t expect foreign corporations to give a shit. Most Canadians have never seen a clear cut. I hadn’t seen one until I was about 22. It’s one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen, and it seemed to go on for ever. Acres and acres of dust. Nothing was growing. Tears started streaming down my face. It’s something everyone should see at least once, just so they know, what those two innocent sounding words “clear cut” actually mean.
