The publishing industry is once again the unhappy poster child for the difference between U.S. and Canadian retail prices, but this time the complaint is coming not from consumers or booksellers but from federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. The Globe and Mail reports that the minister used a copy of Hary Potter and the Deathly Hallows as a prop at a news conference on Tuesday. Flaherty says he paid 20% more at an Ottawa store than the price listed at a Washington D.C. store he visited last weekend.

The Potter prop flap capped a campaign by Mr. Flaherty to insert himself into the national debate about whether retailers are doing enough to cut prices now that the loonie is trading above par with the U.S. dollar.

Although he has sworn off any threat of government action, such as price controls, Mr. Flaherty met with retailers yesterday in hopes of persuading them to voluntarily cut prices.

Standing against a backdrop that proclaimed he was “Standing Up for Consumers,” he said prices are coming down, but not fast enough, and warned that Canadians will cross-border shop if domestic prices don’t reflect the stronger purchasing power of the loonie.

“There should not be large discrepancies between similar products just because they are sold on different sides of the border,” he said.

Retailers said they think they succeeded in convincing Mr. Flaherty that prices may not drop to the exact same level as U.S. prices because of higher costs faced in Canada.

The Globe story also pointed out that if Flaherty had shopped around he could have bought the book at Ottawa bookstore Collected Works, which is currently selling books at the U.S. sticker price. Costco and Amazon.ca’s prices (heavily discounted from the list) were even cheaper than the price in the Washington store.

The Montreal Gazette has also run a story on the issue which quoted Penguin Canada’s Yvonne Hunter about efforts by publishers to reduce prices, as well as Edmonton bookseller Steve Budnarchuk, representing the booksellers’ perspective. “Like Penguin, Budnarchuk said he and other retailers ‘are taking losses to show customers we’re not insensitive to them.'”

For more on the issue from Q&Q Omni, click here.