March 23, 2006

 
The following article is excerpted from John Ibbitson’s column in the 23 March 2006 edition of “globeandmail.com”.

Most Canadians don't seem to realize it, but the matter is settled.

As of the end of next year, any American visiting Canada at a land crossing will need a  passport or a new national identity card. Canadians will need a passport to cross the U.S. border. At airports, the new regulation kicks in at the end of this year.

The Americans instituted the new rules, which Canadian political and business leaders (and some American ones, as well) tried to scuttle. It is now clear the effort has failed. Although negotiations are still under way concerning the implementation of the program, the fact remains that security trumps economy for the United States, and the time when Canadians could expect exemptions from American border security measures is past.

For many Canadians and Americans, it will mark the end of casual cross-border travel between the two countries. For the Canadian tourism industry, it's a disaster. But there's
nothing to be done….

As it stands, then, 80 per cent of Americans won't be allowed to visit Canada, because they won't have the passport needed to get back in, while two-thirds of Canadians will be kept out of the United States….

Once the new rules are in place, international conventions will become mostly a thing of the past. Never mind that the dollar discount isn't what it used to be; what brave American
event planner will be willing to tell the thousands of members of some organization that they will need a passport or identity card to attend the 2008 convention in Calgary? Why not just hold the thing in Denver?

Americans who live near our border might be willing to spend the time and money to pick up an ID card, if they don't have a passport already….

Canadians who don't already have a passport will have to ask themselves whether it's worth the trouble of getting one to attend Cousin Vicky's wedding in Houston. Simply put, the
people of each nation will see less of each other. It's all splendid news for anti-America nationalists.

The news is better on other fronts, thankfully. Although U.S. and Canadian officials continue to plug away at co-ordinating security databases, such as no-fly lists, without infringing on the privacy rights of citizens in both countries, the issue has receded in importance. Nor are the Americans still pressing to see the manifests of domestic Canadian flights that cross into U.S. airspace, which most Canadian flights do….

In general, Washington is relieved to see a new government in Ottawa, hopeful of improved relations and impressed with the choice of former finance minister Michael Wilson as
ambassador.

But Canadian (and American) politicians should forget about trying to prevent the passport/ID requirement from going into effect. It will happen, even though it will make some of us strangers to each other.