Discussion: Rand Paul: Wall Between US And Canada Is 'A Pretty Dumb Idea'

I have driven through the Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba many times from points both north and south. My experience is that Canadians are no more or less nice generally, but it is certainly a plus that the chances of running into an armed and drunk Canadian are less by a factor of perhaps 5, and hence the gun death rate across the border is one-fifth that of America.

The Canadian border guys always ask Americans if they are carrying any firearms, and they cannot conceive anyone from Alaska not having any guns. Once a border guy acted very surprised and acted like he did not believe me when I told him I had no guns, neither in the vehicle or at home in Anchorage.
I told him I had nothing against people having a gun to hunt or for self defense, but that I did not hunt and have been lucky enough not to see the need otherwise. All the places I have hunted and climbed and run into black and brown bears at a comfortable distance, I have never even had to use my pepper spray to ward off bears though I almost used it on an angry moose once.

I was basing my opinion in part on this incident:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/10/28/watch-canadians-stand-up-to-anti-muslim-bigot/

Anyway, I’ve had a soft spot for the Canadians ever since they took in our people who were out of the Embassy in Tehran when the Iranians invaded it in 1979. The Canadian Embassy took in our people and later smuggled them out of the country on Canadian passports. Thank you, Canada.

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Right. I had forgotten about this until the movie Argo came out. But I believe many embassies including American would have done the same. Certainly not knocking Canadians as I have benefitted from good deeds on both sides of the border.