A Globe & Mail story reports that “The Harper government is leaning toward allowing Internet bookseller Amazon.com to set up a warehouse and shipping centre in Canada, a senior official says, based on the belief the U.S. firm’s entrance would offer a ‘net benefit’ for Canadians.”

While the unnamed official says the decision is not yet final, it would be in keeping with the Harper administration’s free-trade, anti-protectionist stance.

Meanwhile, a day after the Canadian Booksellers Association called for the government to block the move (see yesterday’s MobyLives report), saying “no American dot.com retailer could ever purport to understand or promote” Canadian culture, an Amazon spokesperson finally spoke out — to call the charge “preoposterous.”

According to the Globe & Mail report, Paul Misener, Amazon’s “vice-president of global public policy,” complained that his company has poured “tens of thousands of dollars” in Canada since the it opened Amazon.ca in 2002 — indicating the company’s operating costs, apparently, constituted a “track record of eight years serving Canadian customers and authors and publishers.”

But it’s not only the CBA who’s uncertain of the claim, or who see the arrival of an Amazon warehouse as a threat. Retail consultant Wendy Evans says that “If Amazon gets the green light to expand, it will reshape the landscape for virtually all retailers — not just booksellers.” According to Evans, “It’s another huge competitor in our marketplace that will compete across a large number of categories. That could be limitless, really. They’re competing with a different [lower] cost structure.”