So, we may not have to show passports at the Canadian border?

[terrya]

This was a colossally stupid idea, IMO. Beyond being an inconvenience, I don't exactly see how this would have "cracked down on terrorist travel across the borders"

WASHINGTON - Canada's ambassador predicted Monday that the United States would drop a controversial proposal that would require all travelers to show passports in order to cross the long border between the neighboring nations.

Discussions with the Bush administration, which introduced guidelines to crack down on potential terrorist travel across borders, indicates that "passports will not be the ultimate requirements," Canadian Ambassador Frank McKenna said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Currently, U.S. and Canadian travelers need only driver's licenses to cross the border, although passports are often shown.

Requiring passports, which only 20 percent of Americans have, "would be a big change," McKenna said. "And it's become clear to me that both sides of the border think it would be a very damaging change. ... This would cause real havoc to the economy."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050613/ap_on_re_ca/us_passports

[firefox]

1. What are the ID requirements now?

Can you still get in with a driver's license?

[terrya]

2. Right now, a drivers license and a copy of your birth certificate.

[Telly Savalas]

13. Which, unless I'm mistaken, are the only two pieces of documentation

you need to obtain a U.S. passport. So all requiring U.S. citizens to have a passport would do is bust their balls with more paperwork and make 'em shell out 90 bucks.

[wakeme2008]

3. The passport thing was a crazy Bush idea

and I hope in 2008 alot of them go bye bye.

[kliljedahl]

14. " crazy Bush idea"?

Redundant, sorry.


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[MichiDem]

4. It would have cut down on

Michigan's 19 and 20 year olds from crossing over to drink booze.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. How?

"Ooops, you're 19. That means those commie godless Canadians will sell you BOOZE! Sorry. can't have it. Go back."

Or did I miss something here?

[MichiDem]

15. In case you didn't understand...

Michigan drinking age is 21; Canada's is 19. On friday and saturday nights 19 & 20 year old Michiganders swarm over to Canada to drink. Requiring them to have a passport to get into Canada (or more correctly get back from Canada) would have cut into that trade.

WHether that is good or bad I'm not sure.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

16. Trade? They're not smuggling booze into the USA.

It is legal for 19 year olds to drink there, whether you like it or not.

How showing a passport would make them refrain from doing that? It's not like they will be prosecuted on return, since it's not a violation of any law. Or is "being drunk while stepping on US soil" an offense even whenm the drinking was done legally in a place that allows it? (If they DRIVE back drunk they'd be prosecuted anyway regardless of age.)

"WHether that is good or bad I'm not sure." Come on. I wasn't born yesterday.

[MichiDem]

17. This would seem to be an example of

problems communicating through the internet.

It's the getting of the passport that might slow down the 19 & 20 year olds from going to Canada to drink. The extra cost, the time and hassle, possibly even having to ask Mom & Dad for a birth certificate might have an effect.

[stickdog]

11. Um, no. (nt)

[tyedyeto]

5. So, if you go to Canada for the day

you don't need a passport to return, but if you got to Mexico for the day, you do? Shouldn't it be the same for a border crossings?

[Moderator]

6. terrya

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source
and provide a link
to the source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator

[terrya]

8. You're right. It has been corrected.

Thanks for the reminder.

[Missy Vixen]

9. The last time we crossed the US/Canadian border

we had our passports at the ready. The Canadians didn't even look at them, just waved us in, and told us to "have a good trip". The American side, though, was another story. We drew the secondary search because we had cat food in the car. I won't cross the border again without a passport. At all.

I'd rather avoid crossing the border as a rule until * is out of office. If one didn't already know, there was a (well-buried,) article in the "Times" a few months back stating that in case of terrorist attack, the US borders would be immediately sealed. If you're stuck in Canada, you're stuck for the duration.

Julie

[Nay]

10. There are a lot worse things than being stuck in Canada. . .

[Missy Vixen]

12. This is true

at the same time, I'd hate the thought that we'd be stuck. When I was a single girl ;-), I used to drive to Canada for dinner on the weekends...

:hi: to our Canadian neighbors!

Julie

[Spazito]

18. I agree, I haven't crossed the border into the US for those

very reasons, the border could be sealed at a moment's notice and I would not be able to get home. I used to go across the border sometimes twice a month before 9/11 but, after seeing how Americans were stranded in Canada, unable to go home for days afterward and how sad that was for them, it is not worth the risk of being in that situation for sure.

There is another big reason and that is the decision by the bush cabal withdrawing from the Vienna Convention Optional Protocol:

From a Findlaw article:

"Among other nations, Britain, Germany, Japan and Australia - all close U.S. allies - are parties to the Optional Protocol. Now even their citizens may not be guaranteed full observance of their Vienna Convention rights by the U.S.: The U.S. has chosen to alienate even its allies once again."

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/leavitt/20050314.html