By Arthur Weinreb
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
David Wilkins, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada is telling Canadians that they better get a passport if they wish to enter the United States by land. Wilkins agreed that there are a lot of "mixed messages" as to whether or not Canadians will actually need one. Although there are discussions that a form of enhanced driver's license will be acceptable as a substitute, nothing so far has been agreed upon and may not be agreed upon. As it stands right now, the requirement that everyone entering the United States from Canada be in possession of a valid passport is set to come in sometime between January 2008 and June 2009.
If and when the passport requirement does become part of American law, we will have a replay of what took place in January of this year when it became mandatory to possess a passport to enter the U.S. by air. The only difference will be that more people will be involved when the future deadline arrives. As more and more people who needed or wanted to go to the U.S. began showing up at passport offices around the country, processing times became longer and many intended travelers were not able to get their passports by the time that they intended to fly into the U.S. Those people did what we expected they would do in this day and age – they blamed the Canadian government. Although the government did put on extra staff as the January deadline approached, the offices could not keep up with the influx of applicants who needed passports. Even those who managed to get their documents on time complained that about the lineups and about how it took all day; boo hoo hoo.
Naturally in Ottawa the opposition took advantage of the daily Question Period to criticize the government for being the cause of all this misery and in doing so, a lot of time was lost that could have been spent on serious issues of the day such as whether or not Shane Doan should be the captain of Team Canada. And of course the opposition, especially the Liberals who didn't have to fantasize about it, realized that had they had been the government things would not have been any different.
No matter how many warnings Mr. Wilkins gives and no matter how much the upcoming deadline is publicized in the media, what happened last January will happen again. Even if enhanced driver's licenses will be permitted to be used to enter the United States, the problem will still exist. Many who are still driving on valid "old licenses" will not bother to get the new one until their present license expires and the renewal forms are automatically sent in the mail.
Obviously there are some people for whom the about $100 cost of the passport plus pictures is out of reach; especially those large families who travel together. This hardship is understandable. But to those who can afford to pay for the means to enter the United States, there is no excuse for not obtaining one in plenty of time to meet the deadline whatever date that may be. The application can be mailed in and although that procedure takes longer, especially if mistakes have to be corrected, if the only necessity for obtaining one is going to the U.S., there is plenty of line-up free time to get one.
Procrastination is a part of life and will always be. Many people have a tendency to leave things until the last minute on the theory that is will somehow be easier "tomorrow". And then there are those whose philosophy of life is that when you are confronted with a problem, it will go away if you ignore it long enough. Although it is surprising how often this works, unless Al Qaeda and other Islamofascists unconditionally surrender, the need for a passport or enhanced driver's license to go to the United States is not likely to be done away with.
What is really troubling is not that people procrastinate and then find themselves in trouble because they did so; it's the fact they blame their lack of action on the government. They should have had more staff; they should have kept the offices opened longer hours; they should have opened more offices… This really shouldn't be surprising; the nanny state is becoming more and more pervasive in our society as time goes on. The government is responsible for everything.
No matter how much David Wilkins and others warn Canadians about the need of obtaining a passport, nothing will change. The Canadian government, whatever party forms it at the time the deadline comes in will be to blame.
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2024 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2024 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement