border crossings

Here's something I missed. On May 17, the day we got home from Peru, the US Senate voted to delay plans to require passports or other special travel documents at the Canada-US border. The new regulations were to take effect on January 1, 2008, but the new bill would delay that until June 1, 2009. (The bill hasn't passed in the House yet.)

Regardless of either of these dates, many border guards are acting like the new regulations are already in effect, and are asking for passports.

According to a recent survey, many Canadians say they wouldn't travel to the US anymore.

One-half of Canadians would either travel less to the United States or never go again if the Americans made it mandatory to show a passport or other identification at the border, a new poll suggests.

The Leger Marketing survey indicated 33 per cent of Canadians would go south less often, while 17 per cent would no longer go at all and 39 per cent would go just as often.

The poll of 1,500 Canadians was conducted May 16-21 and distributed to The Canadian Press. It is considered accurate within 2.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Of course, sometimes these things don't turn out to be as dire as people first think. When cities pass smoking bans, bar owners claim it will put them out of business, and smokers claim they'll be socializing at home... but very little changes, except the life expectancy of the wait staff. My co-workers who love to travel to New York City will probably still do so. But I can also see how, if someone didn't have a valid passport, they wouldn't bother renewing it just to have the option of impromptu US travel.

Either way, it's silly. A valid driver's license or other government-issued ID should be enough.