I don't doubt that it's America first, and I don't necessarily blame them in that.
But Korth has to have some pull here, they're not a mom & pop purchaser being that they supply the whole Canadian market. They must be able to get 500 or 800 rifles in and out through their network to fill orders. If that even represents the total backlog in this country I'd be surprised.
Out of interest, from my research Marlin in its big years was producing 750,000 lever guns per year. As lever gun popularly declined that tapered down to an average of 300-350 per day in their Connecticut plant between 2000-2010. That declined further under Remington, I read Remington was producing a lever rifle every 135 seconds of work time... 8 hrs x 60 min x 60 sec ÷ 135 = 213 rifles per day. So are we now at half that rate under Ruger? Quarter that rate? Maybe 50 rifles per work day? Building for about 1.5 years now? How many of these have been produced and sent into the wild? Minimum 20,000 I'd guess.
Hopefully they can scale to meet demand.
I think you should contact Korth directly, they will be able to explain it to you.
Korth is not the only Ruger/Marlin distributor, there is another one here in Canada. If you research enough here on Gunnutz you will figure it out. I won't mention another business name on Korth's paid thread.
Your math is good, you obviously have a passion for lever guns. Unfortunately you are forgetting a few things.
When Marlin was building JM rifles, they took pride and care while building them, this takes plenty of time to hand fit each intricate piece. In saying this, they still delivered guns with the infamous Marlin jam. You can Google this term if you wish.
Then Remington buys Marlin and manufactures a rifle with crooked sights, Marlin jam issues, poor fit & finish, as well as other issues. Some of the Remington made Marlin rifles were pretty good, others were a nightmare.
Now that Ruger/Marlin has this brand, they wanted to solve all these issues and build a quality firearm. Are they all perfect? No, but from the ones I have handled are very nice. Fit & finish is excellent, accuracy is very good and the finished product with the new upgrades are beautiful. They take the time to create an excellent gun that one would be proud to own. As far as I know, they have eliminated the Marlin jam issue.
The Americans love their lever action guns as much as us Canadians do. There are more people down south and their market gets filled first.
To my knowledge, Korth and the other Canadian Ruger/Marlin distributor have ordered plenty of guns for the Canadian market. They just are not making it here. It's unfortunate, plenty of Canadian hunters and sport shooters would like one, but there is not enough guns here to quench the thirst for the demand.
Like I said earlier in this thread, just buy one off of Gun-post or the EE. Yes you will pay a little more, but you will satisfy your craving.