Passport Rules Affecting USA and Canada

January 23rd, 2011 admin

For many years, Americans and Canadians have taken pride and comfort in having the world’s largest non-military border. As a Canadian, it is not uncommon to find license plates representing a variety of American states here in Canada. I am sure Americans are used to seeing license plates from various Canadian provinces as well. Unfortunately, this trend is changing and I, like many others, am not fully surprised. Travel between the USA and Canada has fallen noticeably since a requirement to use passports to cross the US-Canadian border was implemented in June 2009. According to Statistics Canada, travel to Canada from the United States fell to its lowest level since tracking began in 1972. Also, per Statistics Canada, the number the number of US tourists has dropped to about half of what it was 5 years ago.

While I have passport, most of my friends living in the USA do not. In the past, my friends from the USA would come here for a visit during the summer. Unfortunately, our annual summer visit did not take place because my friends had not obtained their passports yet.

I am involved in the M-L-M home business industry. In fact, my primary business opportunity deals with travel. In talking with perspective clients, I have noted that people from other parts of the world have long accepted the requirement to travel with a passport.

I am no longer complaining about the issue of passport rules, but after growing up never having to deal with such an issue, it is a sad indication of how much times have changed. I will admit that when the passport rules were first announced, I was not pleased. Yes, in time people from both countries will adjust. I remember when Canada phased out the paper versions of $1.00 and $2.00 dollar bills and replaced them only with $1.00 and $2.00 coins, which are often called Loonies and Toonies. Some people worried about how Canadians would react to having to use coins instead of paper money. To most, it was not a big deal at all. In fact, I don’t even give it a thought anymore. I am hoping this will someday be the case when it comes to travel between the US and Canada again. I do hope people will move past this issue and get their passports. The economies of both countries benefit greatly from tourism. While traveling by car as a child, I used to play a game which focused on spotting a variety of different license plates both from the US and Canada. My children are now playing the game when traveling with me. I hope my children, along with other children from Canada and from the USA will notice a variety of license plates. This will be one good indication that citizens of both countries have moved ahead and have worked to keep our “open border” in effect as much as possible.




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