Blame Canada, again!

The neighbours are at it again. With the chilly Canadian/American relationship playing out from the Ambassadorial level, to the right wing press, it’s no real surprise that the politicians are getting into the act.

Last week it was MSNBC weenie Tucker Carlson crapping all over the Great White North, describing us as a nation of stalkers, likened to a retarded cousin who needs to be patted on the head from time to time.

Now it’s the turn of a rather insignificant United States Senator from Montana to speak his bit, once again trotting out one of the greatest urban legends of current time. Rep. Conrad Burns yesterday uttered the apparently still held belief, that those terrorists that brought down the World Trade Centre and attacked the Pentagon had all gained entry to the United States through Canada.

Senator Burns repeated this bit of bumph while discussing a possible need for a great wall of America across the frozen tundra of the 49th parallel. It seems in addition to a flood of terrorists running through Burns’ mind, there are drug runners and other miscreants of society just waiting to cross the ole Sweetgrass border crossing, something that sends shivers down the uh, (spine?) of the good Senator.

Burns in a hyperbolic display of ignorance claimed that those that brought such misery to America came through the porous borders of the longest undefended border. It’s an old bit of rhetoric that pops up from time to time, despite the facts to the contrary. For the record Burnsy, NOT ONE evil doer snuck across the 49th in the middle of the night to bring terror to America in those fateful days. The terrorists of 9-11 actually all gained legal entry to the United States from other nations, not Canada. But hey, never let the facts get in the way of a good story eh Connie?

Even more disturbing is the revelation that prior to becoming a US Senator, Burns was a journalist and then broadcast executive in Montana. There’s nothing like checking the facts out before getting the story out, not that the US media has shown signs of being a cadre of deep thinkers over the years. The problem is when these people make their statements; it seems it’s considered to be as though Moses himself has transferred the Good word to the tablets.

Burns is apparently in a spot of trouble in his district, so ganging up on Canada makes good copy on the Northern Plains. He’s been in the forefront of the keep Canadian cattle out of America campaign, when he’s not busy getting into trouble over improper campaign contributions.

The worrisome thing is that it seems despite the truth, many Americans seem to buy this blarney that Canada is constantly sending squadrons of trouble makers through the border to wreak havoc.

The idea of a huge wall of America is something that the Canadian government really has no interest in, preferring to let the free passage of goods and people continue on as it has over the last hundred years or so. With that thought prevalent in Ottawa, we are urging for saner heads to prevail in the USA, only problem is, one is beginning to wonder if such a thing exists in those corridors of power below the 49th!