Passport debacle back on

[Canuck]

I want to throw a few curves into this mix.

First the $$$$ factor. In the US it is $100 for a single passport but it is good for 10 yrs therefore yes $10 bucks per year but here in Canada it is only $85 but get this, they are only valid for 5 yrs, why so short????? At one time our govt. said the cost would be set at cost recovery and at that time I think it cost in the $30 dollar range and they charged like the $60 dollar range, money grab I say.

The most confusing thing I look at is if U look closely at what the US is proposing, they are not actually saying passport but rather "secure documents", well check closely and to be a secure document it has to have bio-data included ie: fingerprints, eye scan etc. At this time neither the US nor Canada have secure documents, or is there something in the works??????????

This thing in my opinion will get very political and if somebody takes it by the horns and pushs it from both sides of the border it may be kept put off, (I hope).

I travel between Canada and the USA with a Certificate of Canadian Citizenship issued by the Canadian govt (I was actually born in Canada). This document was issued by our Citizenship office, has my photograph and the best part does NOT expire. One time cost (in 1984 I believe was $45). When I present it at the Emerson border you should see the looks I get from the US customs agents, sometimes the Border Patrol know what it is, that is if they havn't just arrived from the Mexican border.

There has been some things in the paper lately (and we all believe what the paper says, RIGHT GET REAL) that these border crossing cards will be required. Well, these cards are NOT secure documents either and they sure don't stop people crossing the border.

No matter what system they put in place, it WILL NOT prevent the movement of criminals, terrorists etc., it will ONLY inconvenience the honest person, similiar to our firearm registration program.

ps: terrorists move not just south but also north as well. If they had the system they are sugguesting in place prior to 911 it still would not have prevent the movement of these creeps.

[Long Gray Line]

MuskyBrian, I'm really offended by your comment "Mr. Bush's war on terror". Tell the people in the train station in Spain or the people in the club in Indonesia or the people on the street in Israel or the innocent people on the streets of Cairo a month ago or my class mates in Iraq or my wife's fireman cousin that didn't make it out of the World trade Center that this is "Mr. Bush's war on terror". You can't be that naive. Just because we don't have a perfect way to seal the border, it doesn't mean we do nothing. We make it as difficult as we can for these animals to do the harm they want to do to you, me and everyone else they don't like. If you want to lay blame, blame the previous president and his Secretary of State for "insisting" to to the Prime Minister of Israel that Israel release Mohammed Atta and other "political prisoners" to further a deal with the PLO. Sorry to most for my rant.....

[JZ]

Long gray Line if we stayed out of peoples business they would stay out of ours. Isn't it funny thats it all about oil and Bush's personal agenda. In 25 years we will be fighting over genetic material and not Oil. Thing is most of the genetic instruction is at or around the equator. I wonder if we will be fighting terriosts in southern mexico. Ha HA! I for got there's no oil there!!

[Bubbadust]

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if we stayed out of peoples business they would stay out of ours

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You can't be ignorant enough to believe that can you? If we pull out of Iraq and the rest of the rest of the Middle East, I'm pretty sure that radical Muslim extremists like the Taliban will still consider us infidels and want us wiped off the planet.

[JZ]

Than we use a few of our WMD's and not send in troops. Than they can go fishing instead of spening time in the desert.

[MuskyBrian]

I'm not going to get into this topic on a fishing site, my point is ...to Pick your battles accordingly and not getting overly paranoid and resort to tactics that inevitably will have little or no effect on a problem...aka a passport

[B@ssDoctor]

If you start saving now, to buy a passport for the whole family (4) would only be 48 cents a day. Throw the change in your pockets into a bucket and you will have it in no time. I do have 1 kid and 1 is baking in the oven due in 2 months. I know how things can be tight, but I am a firm believer that there should be no exceptions to the rules. All other coutries require it, why shouldn't Canada. I agree that you are not going to cross the border and backhand someone with your fishing pole to try to kill them, but it is not so much as to what is going out of the country as what is coming in.

I am not a racist, but I do believe in 2-3 years English will be the secondary speech in this country. I guess I don't really care, but if we didn't have the passport protection, english would be 10th on the list of languages in the US.

I am an avid fisherman and also an avid hunter. I am not trying to shoot your spirits down, but I really do not believe that Bush cares about your fishing expeditions. If I were President, I would not either. I would be more inclined to protect the US and keep the Freedom that we currently have.

[fishanytime]

I don't want to have to use a passport anymore than the rest of you for the same primary reason, cost to a family, but most of you have missed what information a passport makes available to all border agents, it shows what countries you have been in, how often and and when you were there last. That could be useful infomation.

[Hemlock]

You are correct in that a passport does show what countries you have been to and when. However when they check out my wife's passport, they simply look at it. They don't stamp it or whatever. The book of stampable pages would be filled up pretty fast with the amount we cross the Canada/US border. So for the "average family/fisherman" the passport isn't going to tell you a whole lot.

[Bubbadust]

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Than we use a few of our WMD's and not send in troops. Than they can go fishing instead of spening time in the desert.

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Now that makes sense!