Well, there you go. That's our problem, I guess.
With 9/11, the border suddenly became upfront and personal. That vast blank, which before was an asset, suddenly became a liability. How do you deal with that vastness, if you will?
So I think security has always been paramount, but it's been a different type of security that 9/11 installed or instituted for us.
I think you're absolutely right; I think there were times in the past when Canada looked at the border as a statement of different values, different foreign policies, different ways of dealing with political and governance issues, and that reinforced a Canadian sense of comfort. That was a time when I think Canada was still a bit concerned that American values might permeate or might overtake the Canadian way of life.
This is a political statement, but perhaps a very personal one: I think we've passed that. I don't think Canadians are as threatened, or feel as threatened, by the American way of life the way they did, say, 15, 20, or 25 years ago. To some extent, our thinking that the border somehow is a protector of Canadian values is dissipating. I think that's your point, and I would agree with it.
It is true that, regrettably, with 9/11, on the American side the upfront and personal border has become a security barrier. What I'm hearing a fair amount in Washington is that, no, they don't really feel too threatened by Canadian guns or B.C. bud or people-smuggling of Koreans and so on. Although those are issues for them, they're not overwhelming. They're more concerned about, as I'm now hearing, the rules we have in place for people coming into Canada who can then more easily cross the border into the United States. That is a bit of a problem for them.
Anybody's who's gone to Newark has seen Norwegians and Swedes and Brits who have to put ten fingers down to get them fingerprinted and their faces photographed, whereas we go through without that. There's starting to be a sense that maybe Canada should do the same thing for people coming into Canada, and have the same kind of security controls. If we don't, that enhances their sense of insecurity across that border.
We have some work to do, I guess, if we want to try to persuade the Americans that we are competent and capable of securing our part of the North American real estate. As Perrin Beatty has said, we may have to look at a couple of first principles in order to start that dialogue going. One of them might be to ask what are we doing for people coming into Canada who then might go across to the United States?