FIRST TIME TOOK PERHAPS 6-MONTHS – THE SECOND A COUPLE OF MONTHS:
This Time, The Whole Deal Was Settled In About Two Weeks, When we were Advised by the American Government that the Wait Could be as Long as a Month or More, and Because of Newly Enforced Immigration Rules . . . Not Everyone Will Be Accepted.
Because of What I Write, Say & Advocate, I Had A Real Concern That My Application Might Be Denied . . . But Surprise-Surprise . . . Instead of More than a Month, or a Longer Wait as We Had Expected, Anne & I Received Our NEXUS Cards In About Two Weeks, Which Says Several Things.
First – The Acceptance of our NEXUS Card Renewals Confirms that Officially, Anne & I are Still Considered to be Amongst “Most Trusted (Foreign) Travelers” by the US Government, which According to an American Custom Agent we Spoke With About a Month Ago, Makes Our Passage Into America Much Easier . . . Not that Entering the United States of America is Complicated for Probably 99.9% of Canadian Travelers who Have No Problems Crossing the Border from Canada to America.
In The Words Of The US Customs Agent . . . We Didn’t Have-To Renew our NEXUS Cards at a Cost for Both of us . . . At Nearly $400-CDN For 5-Years ($125-USD Per Card), Since a Valid Canadian Passport is all we Need to Cross Into the United States of America.
But During These Crazy Times, Having NEXUS Cards Gives us a Special Cachet, because we Have Been Thoroughly Vetted by Homeland Security, which Relieves a Lot of Questioning & Suspicion at the Border. Thus We Decided To Spend The Money.
Second – Why Did it Only Take Two Weeks to Get the Cards from the Time of our Application, When it Took so Long Initially, and a Month or More the Last Time During Covid? I Believe There Are Several Answers To That Question.
I Think The Cost Has Something To Do With-It, Since the NEXUS Card is Useless at a Road Border Crossing, Unless Everyone Crossing into the United States in a Single Vehicle Must Have a NEXUS Card, in Order to Access the NEXUS Entry-Lane, And Depending How Many People Are In The Vehicle – That Could Be Expensive.
Except For Passage Into The United States From Canada, the NEXUS Card for Canadians is Irrelevant if the Canadians are Traveling Outside of North America. And from Everything I’m Reading, Canadians are Not Crossing the Border Into the United States of America Nearly as Much as We Did – Before Trump Did His Billy-Bad-Ass Routine On Canada.
US/CANADA BORDER DUTY FREE SHOPS ARE CLOSING:
Canada’s Largest & Most Prominent Senior’s Travel Association (Snowbird Association) . . . Has Been Aggressively Knocking Travel to America, while Enthusiastically Promoting Winter Travel to Europe and the Caribbean . . . To the Point that Canadian Airlines are Substantially Altering Winter Vacation Flights Away from the Usual American Destinations to Destinations Off Continent.
The Other Day, as I was Walking “The Mac Attack” (One Of Our Two Wonderful German Shepherd Dogs) Down the Road, I Ran into a Retired French-Canadian Neighbor who Lives Not that Far From us, Who Stopped Me To Pat The Mac Attack & Chat.
He Asked Me If Anne & I Are Going South Again For The Winter . . . As We Have for the Past 11-Years, with the Exception of Covid? When I Said Yes, as Long as Our Health Makes it Possible, Nothing Has Changed . . . And We Will Spend Almost 6-Months At Myrtle Beach In South Carolina.
“Aren’t You Worried”? He Asked.
“Worried About What?” I Responded.
“Worried About Crime In America, About Being Arrested By The Americans At The Border If The Special Entry Forms Aren’t Filled-Out, Having Them Seize Your Cell Phone . . . You Know They Don’t Like Us.”
“Where The Hell Did You Hear That? I Asked.
“It’s All Over The News” He Said . . . “It’s Not Safe To Be A Canadian In America.”
He Was Right. It is all Over the News, Especially in the French News Media where People who Don’t Read or Listen to English News, are Saturated with the Propaganda.
Not Just French News, since Local & National English Canadian Media (Radio, Television & Newspapers) are Busy Seizing Upon Unique Situations (Sensationalism), where Some Canadians are Indeed Arrested at the US Border for Issues Beyond Simple Entry, Like Overstaying their Visas or Trying to Enter the United States Under False Pretenses.
TRUMP WAGES HIS TARIFF-WAR . . . CANADA WAGES A PROPAGANDA-WAR:
I’ve Written This Stuff Before. But To Some Readers It Seems As Though It Is Not Sinking-In.
Unfortunately . . . The Canadian Media (English Or French) Never Carry Stories Concerning the Many Hundreds of Thousands of Canadians who Enter the USA Every Month Without Incident. And as Long as Trump Fights this Useless, Mostly Untrue & Unfair Battle Against Canada . . . This Kind Of Cross-Border Antipathy Will Only Get Worse.
In Trump’s Latest Iteration Of Why Canada Deserves A 35% Tariff . . . It is because of Fentanyl Crossing from Canada into the United States of America. But the American Agency that Deals With Illegal Drugs (DEA) in the United States Has Come-Out with Statistics that Shows – Less Than 2% Of All Fentanyl Crossing Into America Comes From Canada.
Trump’s Trade Surplus Claim that Canada Sells Anywhere from $60-Billion to $150-Billion Dollars More To America Than America Sells To Canada, Has also Been Debunked, Because it is Patently False. It’s A Lie.
Take Away the Oil & Electricity Canada Sells to America (About $60-Billion Dollars Annually) at a Very Discounted Price, which is a Huge Benefit to America, And It Is America That Has A Trade Surplus Of Approximately $60-Billion Dollars To Canada.
And The BS That America Somehow Subsidizes Canada To The Tune Of $200-Billion Dollars Per Year Is Also A Fairytale. Now Couple that to Trump’s Claim that America Defends Canada Militarily – How?
There are No US Bases or Active US Military on Canadian Soil Other than Perhaps NORAD, which is a 50/50 Partnership Between the USA & Canada. It Is True That There Are Hundreds Of Thousands Of US Military Stationed Worldwide – But None In Canada.
As For The Huge Canadian Dairy, Egg, Chicken & Pork Bugaboo Of Supply Management, where Canada is Ripping-Off Trade with America, That Is True, but Canada is Ripping Off Canadians just as Much with Canada’s Archaic Soviet Style Supply Management. But In The Big Trade Picture Between Our Two Countries, the Above-Mentioned Farm Products in Trade . . . Amounts To A Pittance Between Our Two Countries Which Trade In The Billions.
And Don’t Forget This . . . About 8-Years Ago, Trump Claimed that Canada was Ripping-Off America Through NAFTA – The Worst Trade Deal In The History Of America (His Words).
How Did Trump’s USMCA Go From The Best Trade Deal Ever To Canada Ripping-Off America Again?
So Trump Huffed & Puffed & Tore It All Down. And in the Place of NAFTA (The North American Trade Agreement), the Worst Trade Deal that America Had ever Made, Trump Negotiated the USMCA (US/Mexican/Canadian Trade Agreement) that was the BEST Trade Deal America Had ever Negotiated . . . So What Happened To Trump’s USMCA?
MAKING AMERICA GREAT – SHOULDN’T MEAN MAKING CANADA BAD:
It Is Not In The Interest Of Canada Or America For These Shenanigans To Go-On Much Longer.
Best Regards . . . Howard Galganov
15 Comments
Completely on target. Take away selling much needed and wanted power to the US, Canada over purchases from the US. Kill our auto trade, which worked well for decades, screw us all the time with softwood products since we use a different system, trying to get hands on our water and resources, Trump is doing things that he would cry as unfair if done to the US. I’m selling my property in the US. Spend my money at home.
We should have ALL learned in the last 5 years and decades more if whole truth were known, we can’t believe ANY of the statistics put out by the USA gov’t or Canadian gov’t. Just maybe the countries still negotiating are watching how Trump deals with Canada (our friend) and will be worried they won’t fare any better, maybe worse. Trump can undo the Canadian tariffs after all the negotiations are done. We have NO idea the deals being made behind closed doors. Thank God Trump is where he i
Its easy to kick rhe weakest dog in the pack
Instead of complaining, lets support Carney’s resolve to 1) Create free trade among all Canadian provinces, 2) Build oil and gas pipelines from coast to coast to coast, 3) cultivate true economic friends 4) build a Canadian vehicle industry and 5) stop unwanted immigration that requires more housing and adds to our pollution problems. We can be totally self-sufficient if we put our minds and energies to it. Who could possibly beat this wonderful CANADA of ours?
Trump HAD to ‘lay out HIS plan so the MAGA FOLKS would know he meant business’. He only has a little under 2 years to FIX AMERICA. And he has dealt with every LEADER around the world and wars NOT created by him. The man has had the job since 1/20/2025. He did his due diligence for ISRAEL, Ukraine with -Z- & Putin will end up the responsibility of POLAND & the EU. It is now AMERICA FIRST. We are at a pinnacle..DO OR DIE. I say DO, what say you?
I have heard nothing but criticism of the U.S. from official and media sources. Canada is a long way from the self defender it was in the 1940’s and depends on the U.S. to keep it safe and economically prosperous. Trump is right to criticize. Canada should work to be more independent (see Mr. Gilchrist above) or settle down and enjoy U.S. dominance. After all Canada is ~10% of the U.S. in population and GDP.
NAFTA trade deals expire in 2026. President Trump will make a trade deal with Canada and a separate trade deal with Mexico for the benefit of the American people.
Don’t forget who created all this kafuffle w/ Trump. TRUDEAU did, because he refused to close the border to illegals crossing w/ Fentanyl into the USA. So simple to do!! If U had a child who died from Fentanyl, U wudn’t care that it came via ONLY 2%. It still killed your kid!!!!! Trump did not start this, he simply reacted to the refusal of the Canadian government to step forward and close the border!! Now Carney is meeting w/ other countries to seemingly continue the problem.
Boo hoo – you can’t spend your winters in warm weather. Others worry about lack of food or work. And I don’t like vicious dogs. Its all small problems which I don’t have and I don’t want. It’s time to worry about your soul, not your body. Trump did not force Canadians to elect a narcissistic moron to be our Prime Minister. We elected him because we too are morons. Canadians must take responsibility for their choices and stop blaming Trump for our own stupidities.
Trump is a vengeful man remebering how rude, insulting J. Trudeau was. Trump is hurting Canada and would have us as the 51st State; that will never happen. His across the world tariffs are hurting and ultimately will isolate America as we and others find new friends. It’s a tragedy that for hundreds of years we have been friends with America but Carney is trying to put an end to that, he said “No more America, Canada is more Europe than Europe.” & “Muslim values are Canadian values” and mor
Not a fair criticism. Canada’s stumpage fees, the price paid to harvest timber ADMINISTRATIVELY, rather than market-based, is an unfair subsidy since timber is owned by PROVINCIAL governments and harvest fees are NOT determined by competitive bidding. Canadian producers have an unfair price advantage. Canada’s banks are welcome in USA, NOT so U.S. Banks in Canada due to HARSH Canadian regulations! Canada’s Draconian GST makes US goods more expensive in Canada! Canada Dairy regs stifling to
This shocked me!!! Can it be the “Power of the Press?” Are the Canadian papers working on the destruction of Trump like the American Liberal (Marxist) Press is? Yes, he is working on tarriffs hard. Some times you have to push hard to get attention, then release some tension to get desired results. I trust Trump’s expertise in these negotiations. It needs to be fair to everyone.
I trust Trump. Tariffs will result in fairer trade deals, especially for those, like Americans, who have been forced to pay more than a fair share.
I say AMEN to your thoughts on the subject, Ray Moscato, Calgary, Ab
But the shenanigans will go on. It’s all about “ me , myself and I “ and one day it’s going to backfire.
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