OT: For all the Canadians here

Eh, yourself, eh?

I'll come up and party with you today, you come party with us Friday.

Silly border guards probably won't let us bring our own beer though.

Dawne

That depends. Last time I came over the border, they looked at us two middle-aged ladies, and didn't even want to inspect the vehicle. We could've had a ton of pot and half a dozen illegal immigrants and they wouldn't have known.

Just put on your best "responsible member of society" frock and hide the beer under the needlework stash.

Sure you can - within certain limits. And you have to be 'drinking it yourself' :) not taking it as a present.

MargW speaking from personal experience.

Always be respectful and truthful and just answer the questions as briefly as possible. Mom always insisted on having a list and receipts for the Cdn border guards. Always worked. What was I bringing into the country? My grandparents who were busy fighting over seatbelts . Racy underwear- I bought these... IT is weird having to show ID at the US border. Been going over for 50 years...and my family for 200+years... But regretably necessary. nanc

Keep in mind that you will probably need a passport now.

No, you don't need a passport to drive over the border from Canada to the U.S., but if you are flying from Canada to the U.S. you do need a passport.

As for the beer...we drive across every 6 weeks and never have a problem taking beer across the border. Our son lives in the U.S. now, but still enjoys a treat of Canadian beer.

take care, Linda D. in B.C., Canada

NOTE: As of the beginning of 2008 you are now required to have your passport for either driving or flying.

That's maybe, wait for further notification which may come after the elections perhaps if sanity returns. It's already been delayed once, think it originally was to be necessary starting in 2006.

I think they are still trying to figure out what is going to happen in those small areas, like Campobello Island, where the people from both sides go back and forth anytime they even go down the road a couple of hundred yards.

It's an absolutely pointless operation that will become a nightmare to enforce. Just a silly knee jerk reaction to a mostly imaginary problem that doesn't exist.

Not everyone needs a passport to drive across the border from Canada to the States - Yet. You do need proof of identity and citizenship.

Maybe where you live in Canada, but we BC'ers can still drive across the border using a BC Drivers License and a Birth Certificate.

=2E..Linda D. in B.C., Canada

Same here in Ontario, and they are looking at alternate secure documents such as bar coded drivers licences and special identity cards for individuals who travel back and forth all the time (like folks who live on one side of the border and work on the other). This will also let those folks clear customs without stopping by presenting their cards to a scanner - sort of like the way some of the transport truck have transponders that let them bypass the truck inspection stations. If you have travelled on I-75 or 401 you may have seen them - they look rather like a camera hung out over the highway. They read the information from the truck - it's origin, cargo and destination. My understanding is that it originally was set up to speed up transshipment of auto parts between plants in the US and Canada since most of them have to travel through Detroit/Windsor which is the busiest US/Canada border crossing.

MargW