That's a big question to answer. I would say that there has not been improvement. If I were to compare things with the situation on September 10, 2001, no. We've seen a definite thickening of the border, and this is having an impact on the trading relationship and our ability to compete, not only as a country but as a continent, with the rest of the world.
What to do about it is a complex matter. Obviously, we have to be marketing, trying to convince Americans that we are important to them—not as important in the economic relationship as they are to us, but that we are important. However, Americans at the political level as well as at the business level are rather pragmatic people. We tend at times—maybe it's a bit of our inferiority complex—to put a lot of our energy and attention into making them aware that we exist and that the border is important, and we don't go much beyond that. When we're dealing with Congress, when we're dealing with legislators, we have to bring solutions. A congressman is there to introduce bills and get laws passed, and we need to bring them something.
I don't know that we need to look very far. In the first iteration of the security and prosperity partnership, the game plan was to say that there are no silver bullets, so let's come up with a comprehensive list of things that need doing. None of these measures may appear to be particularly important, not the sort of thing that's going to catch headlines, but in combination these things will have a practical impact upon improving the situation at the border. What happened with SPP over time was that it was felt that we couldn't deal with 350 issues, even minor ones, and that we needed to come up with our top three or four. At that point, we lost focus. There is no big silver bullet, and we end up talking about things that may matter in the future, but we're all living with today.
I think we need to engage the United States on many fronts, but we need to put solutions, practical solutions, on the table. We've missed some of that, and we've tried to re-engage them by telling them how important we are to them.