Canadian Crossing

Sports teams caught up in latest grudge match with U.S. & Canada over 'terrorism'

Professional athletes get to travel in a style that not even frequent business travelers get to do. But their travel schedules are more hectic.

Unfortunately, for Canadian-based teams and teams traveling to Canada, traveling for the job just become rather difficult.

Let's have The Associated Press explain the situation:

Years of exemptions for sports teams ended in August when the United States Department of Transportation stepped up enforcement of a rule that prohibits foreign charter carriers from making domestic flights between American cities. Canada responded by enforcing the rule on its side of the border.

If you have trouble following the logic of any of this, you are not alone.

So because of restrictions due to terrorism (among baseball players??), the United States made it illegal for a foreign charter to fly between U.S. cities. Then, Canada struck back on its side of the border.

Where this really gets messed up, the Toronto Blue Jays — using an American charter company — was going to Detroit. The logical choice was to fly into Windsor and then bus across the river to the stadium. But due to the rules change, the Blue Jays had to fly all the way to Detroit Metro, far away from the stadium.

The proposal primarily affects the NHL and teams traveling to the Toronto Raptors of the NBA (and of course, the Raptors themselves). It might force teams to fly back home in between road trips, adding aggravation to a busy travel schedule.

But this is the latest in the ongoing "pissing match" between the two countries over travel restrictions to make each country seem "tough on terrorism." Yes, the United States started it, but both countries share a level of blame.

Trucks carrying products and produce have suffered as have vacationers because of this grudge match. The U.S. and Canada have had a mostly friendly relationship for years. The sooner they get back to being mostly friends, the happier the citizens will be in their travels, even professional athletes.

On vacation, learning about where Canadians laws are made

_{the primary Parliament building in Ottawa, Canada (all pictures by me)}

My friends tease me that I know everything about Canada. As much as I know about Canada, and it's a lot, I learned something quite interesting on my string of vacations.

I know the federal Senate in Canada is quite different from the U.S. Senate. When I learned about Canadian politics back in college, I remember that Western Canada wanted a Triple E Senate — Elected, Equal, Effective. Canada still doesn't have any of those traits in its Senate. But I assumed, for some reason, that the provinces had Senates as well (just like the U.S. states).

When I went to the Parliament in Quebec City, capital of Quebec, I found out that the provinces no longer had Senates. In fact, Quebec was the last province to give up having a Senate, sometime in the 1960s.

I went on an unofficial quest to see provincial legislative buildings on my most recent Canadian trips. It wasn't something I planned deeply. After all, I've seen the legislative buildings (from the outside) of British Columbia (Victoria) and Ontario (Queen's Park/Toronto), and yet never went inside them or toured them.

_{main legislative rooms in Quebec City...}

But when you are in smaller cities, sometimes unusual trips end up on your itinerary. After all, the provincial building in Quebec City was amazingly beautiful. And the tour was very intriguing.

_{... and Halifax, Nova Scotia ...}

When I was in Halifax, the tour had the most ideal 1-1 ratio of tour guide and me. I even got to sit in the speaker's chair in the Nova Scotia parliament room.

_{... and the House of Commons for the federal government in Ottawa.}

And only having about 2 hours in Ottawa, the most logical quest is a tour of the national Parliament. I sneaked into the back of a tour that just started. And I enjoyed getting to see where the laws get introduced and debated. And the federal Parliament has a working Senate.

Both Quebec and Nova Scotia used their former Senate rooms as meeting spots for legislative committees. The rooms in these buildings are so ornate, so it's good to see rooms are used well.

The contrasts to the U.S. political system are quite startling. The leader of the province and country are MPs, or members of Parliament. They are legislative AND executive members. Also, the Speaker of the House, while belonging to the party in power, has to be neutral in running the business of the House, and doesn't usually vote.

The members of the minority party get to directly question the leader and the members of the majority party.

This isn't to say Canadian systems are better or worse than the U.S. This is only to say that I now have a much more significant knowledge of how and where laws are made in Canada.