Oh Canada

A friend from Toledo Ohio writes:

On Saturday I had to go to Windsor, Canada to get a prescription filled — a routine trip I make every three or four months — and when I got over the bridge to Canada, to my astonishment there was only one car ahead of me. Yay! No waiting.

As I approached the Canadian border guard booth, expecting a quick roll through, the guard began asking me the usual questions — where are you from, what is your business, where are you going, how long do you expect to be there.
It all went smoothly as usual, but then as I thought we were wrapping this short conversation up — and he still had my passport — he asked me a question that I did not expect and seemed way out of line.

He said, “So you guys got a big election coming up. How are you going to vote?”

I said, What? Thinking he meant my local Toledo election in which a controversial jail project will be on the ballot, I said I wasn’t sure about the jail.

He said, “No, the federal election. I want to know how you are planning to vote.” (He meant the 2020 presidential election).

I was taken aback and suddenly kind of nervous because (a) I needed to get to Windsor, (b) this seemed out of bounds, (c) give the wrong answer and I could get stripped searched and hassled.

So I politely told him “Well, I’m not really a fan of Trump.”

EHHHHHH. Wrong fucking answer.

To my shock, I proceeded to receive a 20 minute lecture (from a Canadian) on the good things Trump is doing, and why was I not supporting him and what is so bad about his wall project?

I pretty much played the ignorant American and said I hadn’t really read much about it. And that’s when the lectured started about the virtues of building a wall, keeping illegals out of the U.S., keeping America & Canada safe from bad immigrants here to commit crimes, how immigrants are using resources and not paying taxes, how they are taking money out of the U.S. economy by sending cash to Mexico.

Every time I felt my skin crawl and my dander rise I forced myself to just play dumb.

My standard line was “Wow, I didn’t know that” along with “You make some excellent points” and “You make me want to go home and study this more, thank you.”

Eventually, he let me go. But shit, I felt kind of violated because you don’t expect to be getting this from a guy with a gun, a MAGA attitude, and the power to detain and search me, and god knows, maybe plant drugs in my vehicle.

Going back to the U.S., the American border guard was also kind of nasty, but at least he didn’t ask me how I planned to vote in 2020.

I am still feeling kind of WTF?

Just for the heck of it, this was almost exactly two years ago:

“He became President of the United States in that moment, period,” said Jones, after the evening’s most emotional point was replayed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

“That was one of the most extraordinary moments you have ever seen in American politics,” Jones added.