By the time you’re reading this my family will probably be on its way back from a trip to visit some friends in Canada. Yes, we ventured behind The Maple Curtain to the people subjugated by Vladimir Poutine, AKA Justin Trudeau. The trip has been good, save for our entrance into the country, which I’ll get to in a minute. This has been Little Bob’s first trip outside the US, and it’s been a number of years since Sister Babe or I had ventured into The Great White North.
Canada in the summer is always has great weather, and Toronto has been no exception. We did a bunch of the touristy stuff, like going up the CN Tower and a day trip to Niagara Falls. It’s also a given that as you travel way from DC the radio gets better. I’ve been hooked on CIND 88.1 HD2, a classic hard rock station, although I did feel old on one day’s road trip and it took 90 minutes before they played a hard rock / metal song released before 1990. The Blue Jays are in town, and out of curiosity I thought I’d check if there were any cheap seats for the afternoon game. Not that I have any desire to support woke MLB (we’ve done a few Minor League games back home), but if the kids wanted to do it I’d be open. $51 for the cheapest seat – hard pass. I know we have the favorable exchange rate and prices won’t be the same as when I was a kid, but how can they expect the next generation of fans to get into the game when tickets are expensive before you get to the crazy concessions prices? Not to mention the insane TV deals with regional cable operators that keep the games inaccessible a number of fans, but I digress.
Toronto views itself as the Canadian New York. While they can never be that without the sky scrapers, it definitely has a New York feel, but with Canadian politeness. And you don’t have to worry about the drug addict on the side walk defecating on in front of you before brandishing a knife and trying to murder your family. It’s also got the big city Lefty feel to it. You get your share of freaks, but there are little differences. Unlike US bicyclists in the streets, theirs all seem to have been born with common sense. They don’t fly down at 40 MPH without giving a damn as to who or what’s in front of them, and they seem to get the concept of sharing the road – they actually keep as far right as possible. As someone used to nimrod cyclists who feel the need to slow down traffic by hogging the road because some dopes in the city offices decreed that theirs is a “green” city and that all roads must be shared between cars and bikes, safety and common sense be damned.
Another interesting quirk about our neighbors to the north is their requirement that all media have at least 20% Canadian content. I’d heard about it regarding their TV, I noticed it on the radio, but the interesting part was on our trip to Canada’s Wonderland on our final day. Anyone who’s been to an amusement in the last decade knows that music playing on the PA is common. What’s different north of the border is that today was the first, and probably last time I’d ever hear the PA at a park play deep cuts from Loverboy, The Band, Neil Young, and April Wine. And I had been grousing to Sister Babe how we manage to spend an entire week in Canada without hearing any Rush, and karma would reward me when we were making our way out of the park and the PA jammed YYZ for us.
But that’s not why I’m writing this post. Faithful readers (thank you, both of you!) know I don’t post travelogues unless there’s a point. As we were crossing the border into Canada we got to customs for the expected routine questions. But the questions we got were anything but routine. The agent began asking questions about our personal gun ownership. At first I assumed that he was reasonably asking if we were bringing firearms into the country, a perfectly fair query. No, he was asking about our personal gun ownership. I had to make a quick decision, and assuming that this agent was in some official law enforcement capacity answered his questions honestly. The one option I was not going to take was giving any false information, as I had no way of knowing if he had any means of cross referencing or if he was using SCMODS.
Although I will admit that the options of responding. “None of your damned business, you maple chugging Fascist!” or pushing back and asking how the questions were relevant to our entrance came to mind. The former reply probably would have made the crossing far more difficult if not impossible, while the latter probably would have at best gotten us pulled over for the rubber glove treatment. It would have been one thing is I had been travelling solo, but making a trip more difficult for a travel weary wife and tired, impatient son would not have made life at home better for me. So I sadly took the path of least resistance. Afterward, when Sister Babe and I were talking about the encounter we were surprised we weren’t asked about our Fauci Flu status or the address of who we were visiting.
I’m still annoyed though, and am debating taking action once we’re breathing free air again and are no longer inside Justin Castreau’s regime. I don’t know if I have any recourse, but at the least am considering writing to the Border Authority to ask how the info I provided is being used and with whom it is being shared. I’m also looking to you, good reader for advice. Did I completely blow it at the crossing? Should I be pursuing this differently or if at all? Or should I just let it go?
Mind you, I haven’t let the crossing eat at me and prevent me from enjoying our trip – far from it. Any trip that involves one’s first taste of poutine is a good thing. The question is what to do next when we return to the states.
Header image appears via Venango County, and The Week in Radical Leftism returns next week.
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Get Tamara Lich’s new book “Hold The Line: My Story from the Heart of the Freedom Convoy.”
You’ve heard from the media and the convoy’s critics. Now hear the truth from the woman who inspired the world and made Justin Trudeau blink.https://t.co/qz7iW3oMT1.
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) July 20, 2023
Brother Bob is no longer on Facebook (although you can see his archives there), and is back on Twitter again, but is ramping up on Minds and Gab, as well as Parler and GETTR, and has his biggest presence on MeWe.
Cross posted from Brother Bob’s Blog
My late Father wanted to move us to Canada I am happy my mom Opposed it our Neighbor to the North has become just another Socialists Mess run by a bumbling halfwit
There’s a lot to love about Canada, but having Fidel Castro’s illegitimate son in charge (not to mention a population that would elect him) is a non starter
Honesty is probably the best policy with the only other recourse being to answer, “How about F**K YOU?”, but you have to be prepared to suffer the consequences, which is probably not getting into Canada with your family. It’s a totally inappropriate, but remember, it’s not the former United States where people used to have rights to privacy.
You’ve mentioned before that your wife is liberal and y’all manage to get along just fine; how does she react to these liberal policies that intrude on personal privacy?
She’s a Normal where it counts. I could tell a few stories as examples, but for obvious reasons am not. All good!
I would say she’s an excellent person, as most liberals I’ve met and know (and are kin to) have no tolerance whatsoever.
For the record, it was 111 degrees at Dinosaur Valley State Park, so I hate you. However, it wasn’t too bad. I went down into the river bed and saw dinosaur tracks and didn’t die.
Canada is the only country outside of the USA that I have ever visited. I don’t have a passport and probably never will so I won’t be visiting again. More of interest to me is what kind of questions do our Border Patrol ask when terrorist cross our border.
“Which Red State destination would you prefer? Which Obamaphone would you like? Do you need help filling out this voter registration card?”
I am old Marine and I have Scottish blood in me! Get the picture? I would have told him that it is none of his frackin’ business and had seen enough of his country and I’m gonna leave now !
Fair enough, and part of me wishes I did. Not so easy when you’ve been on the road for hours and have a travel weary family on board after sitting in a half hour of bumper to bumper border crossing backup.
The correct answer to the Syrup chugging facist was, out of the 393 million privately owned firearms in the US I am a below average owner of less than 5.
Bob, you should have asked the customs agent if his partner preferred doggie or missionary.