Opening Borders: The Continental Security Perimeter
The new “Continental Security Perimeter” may sound distasteful, but we need it to make trade with the U.S. easier.
Many years ago, while working in Windsor, Ontario, I frequently crossed the border to Detroit to cover stories. Routinely, my workmates and I would cross over for lunch, to watch a ball game, or catch a concert.
Meanwhile, trucks bearing trade goods to both countries streamed through in a matter of minutes.
Compare that to today – the post 9/11 climate of fear and the Homeland Security restrictions that govern the U.S. border. These days it sometimes seems like it’s easier to get into China than to enter the U.S.
Canadian border officials have taken their cue from the Americans’ increasing thickening of the border. Not wanting to be left out, they’re becoming increasingly watchful and belligerent about people coming into or returning to Canada.
This affects not only B.C. consumers bent on shopping, but also our tourism industry. Tourism has taken a dive because of the requirement that Americans need passports to cross into Canada, and so has cross-border trade, which is a major part of the B.C. economy.
So the promise from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama to attempt to unsnarl the long Canadian border as part of a “Continental Security Perimeter” movement, is welcome.
Whether it will happen is another matter completely.
Both leaders have to fend off large forces that don’t like the continental security perimeter idea very much.
Obama has to convince the right wing that the deal will keep America "safe." He's dealing with the America-love-it-or-leave it constituency and its own powerful Homeland Security department, which often apparently sees everyone whose ancestors didn’t come over on the Mayflower as a potential security threat.
Harper has to contend with the crowd that sees this as a Canadian sovereignty sell-out, much like they saw the Free Trade Deal a couple of decades ago. You can bet there will be a lot of people in this country who feel the perimeter idea puts Canada on a slippery slope to its ultimate demise. They’ll no doubt make their fears known in the next election.
There will be much palaver in future about what this continental security perimeter actually means. And possibly, the whole open border idea will crash and burn like others before it.
Like most Canadians, I am sometimes astonished and suspicious of the often erratic and paranoid thinking displayed by the big guy next door. Forming a security perimeter with the Americans seems a little like climbing into bed with the devil.
But I also recognize that our economies are inextricably linked, and becoming ever closer.
To not only prosper, but survive, we need to make movement across the border easier. If this is the only way we can do it, so be it.
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