All of this is important and we need to continue doing it.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, for its part, will be updating its joint report with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and it will be releasing new recommendations on how to improve the functioning of the border. At the end of the day, we have to pull back and assess the progress. We've had brilliant people serving us in Washington; we have superb teams there. All of us have poured resources in since 9/11.
Where are we? Two weeks ago we had the Homeland Security Secretary saying that the 9/11 terrorists crossed from Canada. That was followed by John McCain, who was here in Ottawa as recently as last summer, saying, “Well, of course, she was right. They crossed the Canadian border.” If all of the efforts we've made in education have brought us to that point, it's time for us to go back to the drawing board and ask ourselves whether the strategy essentially works.
When the Americans spend $100 million to launch a new razor blade, what are the resources that we as Canadians can put into the educational campaign in the U.S.? That's why, yes, we have to continue to do that to the best of our ability, and we have to continue to try to improve the system as it currently exists. We need to engage the Americans at a new level. That means Prime Minister to President, and it means with a new idea and with something that is important enough that it needs to be decided at the political level, not by meetings of bureaucrats--it's a game change or to redefine the rules.
That's the only way we can win.