Passports required

Today is the first day that passports are required to enter the US from Canada. Likewise, US citizens require a passport to re-enter the United States. I wonder what they will do with all the folks that left the US and didn't take a passport with them?? Could prove a little interesting. One thing is certain, I'm glad I don't have to deal with those lines at Customs for a little while. No near term travel plans into the US.

I heard some conversation on the origin of passports as it relates to Canada and the US this morning on CBC. A historian was describing how Abe Lincoln had put pressure on the Canadian government to put armed guards on the Canadian border to quell confederate soldiers from entering the US to attack from the north. I guess this could be expressed another way as our first harbouring of terrorists.

Since 9/11, according to the Department of Homeland Security, the American government has spent more than 122 million U.S. dollars U.S. on technology to secure the Canada-US border. The number of U.S. border agents has almost tripled from 340 to 980. And under the US-VISIT program - a system that grants quick access over the border for frequent travelers - biometric technology such as thumbprints and retinal scanning is now installed in 154 land ports of entry. That program has screened some 4 million visitors.

Meanwhile, on the Canadian side, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day recently announced an investment of 430 million Canadian dollars on border security. This is in addition to the $433 million previously promised (since December 2001) to upgrade border security technology. Not to mention Canadian border guards will soon be armed, much like their American counterparts.

Another interesting note is on the volume of Canadians in the US. Before 1960, Canadians did not require a "green card" to work in the US. In fact, a census in and around this time showed more Canadians living and working in the US as a demographic group than those that claimed "hispanic" as their demographic.

I do need to get into the US periodically and my passport has expired. Have you tried to get one recently. Good to see how inept our government is at facilitating this travel requirement. On repeated attempts to start the process through the government's website, I have had no luck. The "interactive" version is hootched. The electronic forms are corrupted. And the only viable option is still going to a postal depot to pick up a paper form and then drop off.

It's good to know that the policies and procedure that were essentially developed by Sir John A McDonald are still the gold seal practise for Canadian passport acquisition. Ah the nostalgia. You have to love a tradition.