A Glimpse of the Future

We inch closer and closer to June 1st: the day that Canadians and Americans will require WHTI acceptable documents to cross into the United States.from Canada by land and sea in addition to the already implemented air.

But even now, with our still accepted driver’s license and birth certificate combination allowed, we’re seeing a glimpse of what the future of a “more secure” border have on the two country’s relations.

A BC radio station posted a news article on their website entitled Update: Massive weekend border lineups have many people reconsidering future travel plans. From the write up:

On Friday afternoon, the lineups heading into the States at Peace Arch, the 'Truck Crossing' and Aldergrove stretched for hours.  Canadians flying out of Bellingham were forced to leave home hours early, while others just heading down to the states to visit family over the long weekend decided to turn around and make other plans.

Yesterday afternoon the northbound lineups started growing, and by last night, a border wait of five hours was reported at the Huntington crossing.  One caller to our newsroom says he's tired of taking the chance, and says from now on, he'll enjoy his weekends up north.

At the same time that the US border is being strengthened, Canada is reportedly cutting back on their border staff, and yet also looking to arm the ones remaining. And through all this, those that depend on business from their neighbours over the border, in both countries, are the ones suffering.

As one person said when calling in to the radio station:

"We used to go down every week and a half, but if this keeps up, we'll be lucky if we go down every four to six weeks."

This is not a fad, this is not temporary. This is a glimpse of the future of Canada/US relations.