I have noticed alot of conversation on here relating to US/CAN relations and I thought I might as well tell my tale to whom may care. First of all, I live in the extreme NE corner of MT and only a jog from the Sask border. My family homesteaded in CAN for a short time and dropped down here into MT to farm and ranch until present. For the entire time I was growing up here (I am 25) my family and all of the other families in a two county area relied heavily on Minton, Sask for our machinery parts (and still do to this day) and Regina was our area's primary and closest place for doctering and major shopping. My family has farms and run sheep and cattle along the Sask border as well. One of our neighbors here in MT, has a farm up in Sask as do a couple others. We get two local American radio stations, but all the rest are Canadian. Our local economy, other than agriculture, used to be solely based on Canadian visitors coming down and spending money in our two countie's largest towns Scobey, Plentywood and everywhere else. I got to legaly drink in a bar my first time when I was 18 in CAN. :eek: So, being this close to CAN all my "young years", I have a pretty good idea of Canadians in general, despite what might be heard, felt, or asumed by others of the US. From what we, at home, have always knew, the Canadian people never appeared to be much different from us Montanans down here in anyway, exept for the word "eigh" and the spelling of some words such as "cheque" and "colour"
sorry for that. I am sure there are some bad apples up there somewhere, but I don't remember bumping into any. The general Canadians seem to go about things in much the same way as the general Americans do. The Canadians work for a living just like us and argue a little polotics at times, just like us. Canadians don't mind the general Americans coming up for a visit nor do Americans mind the general Canadian coming down for a visit. We both rely on each other for certian things that each nation lacks for themselves. For the most part, from what I can tell, the general Canadians and the general Americans seem to let each other blend right in to each other's peoples. The problem is not the general, or I should say the "real" people, of both nations, it is the leaders of both nations in form of government! :x So, for both sides I say, don't let TV make our decisions on one another, nor our governments who do too much yapping on it. Don't get the "real" people of each nation mixed up with both of the nation's, far removed from it's people, governments. Keep that in mind when you want to go up to your favorite stomping grounds or down here for hunting, fishing, visiting, vacationing, etc. Obviously, both nations are now in a mess left by 911, and is realy being felt HARD by us both. In particular, we always looked forward to our 3 hunter friends from Toronto to show up every bird season to visit, dine, and get put on some good bird hunting. However, now after 911 they hunt down to the border area, but do not come across because of all they would have to go through to get thier many dogs, tons of ammo, several guns, etc. over it. All they could do since 911 is call us to talk and send us post cards from practically just across the border! Few of locals venture up there now on account of all of this and our Canadian customers are threatened from here to a seriuos degree as well. If it were not for Williston, ND having a Walmart, car dealerships, grocieries, etc. than a huge area of our corner of the state would dry up even quicker than it already is. The exchange rate already killed us for Canadian money keeping us going, and now that it is finally cheeper to buy in CAN, we are now in the midst of this border crossing disaster! Well, maybe in a couple years things may mellow out a bit, but the main thing is if we just think of each other as "individuals" who make up the "real" CAN or US and are not nessacarily tied to our governments thinking and/or actions, then we all will get through things much more comfortably and at ease.
Huntrap
