A Usenet persona calling itself BCITORGB wrote:

Weiser says:
================
If we close the border with Canada, it will be CLOSED. Nobody in,
nobody
out.
It's much cheaper for us to force you to fix it than to do it
ourselves.
=================

But Scott, that's a huge IF.

Indeed. It's a last resort option. We'd much rather you agree to keep your
drug dealers and terrorists up there so we don't have to.

I think someone (perhaps Michael) has
already pointed out that the trade between our two countries is HUGE.
And trade, as I'm sure you know, is a two-way street.

Which can be made a no-way street when the costs exceed the benefits. It
won't take too many terrorist incursions from Canada to make it worth it to
close the border.


If this 2-way trade were not extremely advantageous to the USA (and, of
course, to Canada as well), you wouldn't be engaging in it. Now in
terms of dollars required to fix whatever problem you perceive there to
be with our mutual border: do you really believe that cutting off trade
with Canada will be cheaper than the USA fixing whatever this problem
is?

The mere threat will probably be sufficient to persuade your masters to
clean up their act. If not, the sanctions can be imposed gradually,
increasing the economic pressure until you cave, which you will long before
we do.


I suggest that if that's your position, then you cannot even begin to
fathom how valuable this trade is to your country. Fixing a border
problem would cost a mere pittance in relation to the trade we're
talking about.

That's a good reason for Canada to clean up its act. Mexico too...


--
Regards,
Scott Weiser

"I love the Internet, I no longer have to depend on
friends, family and co-workers, I can annoy people WORLDWIDE!" TM

© 2005 Scott Weiser