Canada Trip!!!!!!

[Stan]

Pets: The main criteria is health so your vet can make sure your pet has the required shots and provide you with the proper paperwork.  As of this year I believe that pitbulls are banned from the province of Ontario.

Towed vehicle brakes: Motor vehicle laws are provincial and vary on the issue of towed brakes. Weight of the towed vehicle and weight of the towing vehicle are usually factors. Google the MVD of the province or provinces you plan to visit.

Ever since the terrorist atacks in the US, international travel has become more of a pain going through customs. Flying is even worse than driviing with the worry that you may bomb the plane instead of a building after you arrive. Taking my wife in a wheelchair now involves a secondary inspection complete with pat down and swabbing of her shoes with the swabs going through some kind of analyzer to check for explosives. If you are able to walk, you put your shoes on the belt and walk through on the filthy floor, which I expect gets sanitized every day whether it needs it not.

[t power]

gumpy  canada does not control the us side of the border .us customs or immigration control who gets in to the us.

[Timkar]

Bringing pets in to Canada...make sure you have vaccination certificates for them. Best advice when going through customs is speak only when spoken to and be polite. This goes for both sides of the border.  I've got a couple of tattoos from my younger days (ex-Navy) and when crossing in to the US once the border patrol saw them, pulled me over, ripped the car apart, didn't find anything and said have a nice day. Took a while for me to get the seats back in properly...Needless to say I cover my tattoos when going across the border.

[gumpy]

gumpy  canada does not control the us side of the border .us customs or immigration control who gets in to the us.

Yeah, so?  What's your point? 

I think I said in my post that I could have smuggled anything across the border going in either direction.

The fact is, I found border security to be pretty much of a joke going in both directions.

[t power]

gumpy!  my point was canada d0sn`t let the terrorists in to the us ,the us customs or immigration are the ones that allow them in.

[gumpy]

Oh, scuse me. You're absolutely correct.

Canadian customs lets the terrorists into their country first.

Then the US customs lets them into ours  (and it is fairly well documented that many of the terrorists and illegal aliens entering the US are coming by way of Canada).

Kind of a subtle difference there, don't you think. Not really sure why you felt the need to point that out, but thanks for the clarification. Of course I do understand how that works.

Doesn't really change the basic fact that the border security on BOTH sides is pretty much useless!

Not really relavent to the questions at hand, either.

[Stan]

I don't want to turn this into a political discussion. The US along with several other countries have become paranoid about who enters their country. They have passed a multitude of new laws and in the interests of political correctness along with trade concerns they have created many laws that are unworkable.

When you arrive at the border as a legitimate tourist or returning home from a legitimate tourist trip you  are gambling on which federal officer will be the first one to talk to you. It may be a young hotshot who has read the book and is going to enforce every law to the letter or it may be an old seasoned officer who has no interest in the new laws (just two more years to a pension) and just wants to go home for the day.

You don't have any choice in which one you get so try and follow all the good advice given in the previous posts and enjoy your trip. There is no question that passports are the preferred
identification at the Canada/US border and carrying any banned  or restricted material can cause serious problems.  Many years of experience has shown me that most countries are less restrictive to visiting tourists than you home country when you return.