US Threats on visa-only entry.

So our big neighbour to the south is threatning Canada with visa-only access into the country unless they get a say in our domestic security affairs. You know what I say to that? Let them. Let them require visas.

It’s a brash statement to make, then again, I don’t expect them to actually go through with the threats. The free flow of trade to both our economies is too important. But I do find this kind of armtwisting arrogant. There’s already a high level of intelligence sharing between the two nations. Discussions to heighten that is one thing, but to threaten us if we don’t comply?

I thought the passport-free entrance was a symbol of American-Canadian unity, of our shared values and a testament to our communal border security. We’ve progressed back to passport-only entry, and now we’re being pushed to visa-only entry.

It is the arrogance that fuels these threats which bothers me. America has a bad wrap here. It doesn’t help that they already have stations in all of our international airport. Or that they built a concrete barrier in the middle of my downtown’s busiest laneways, in the name of protecting their embassy. From bombs. As if somehow the existing bomb-proof glass, seperator, fifteen foot high fence, second seperator, and line of impact poles didn’t do the job already.

Why the Americans felt the need to build that military-grade fortress in the downtown core of my city I know not. But if their way to keep pushing policies through remains through pure bullying, and not even-handed negotiations, then they’re only going to continue to isolate themselves further.