MANY FAVOUR OPEN BORDER WITH STATES, BUT NOT POLICE

Almost 40 per cent of Canadians think it would be a good idea to to
eliminate customs and duty-collection points along the Canada-U.S. border --
but police and economists warn the idea of a wide-open frontier is fraught
with problems.

While most Canadians surveyed by Ekos Research Associates indicated they
were concerned about drugs and weapons entering the country illegally, only
49 per cent said they felt a need to maintain customs operations and to
collect duties along the Canada-U.S. frontier.

Of the rest, 39 per cent said there was no need and 12 per cent had no opinion.

But Inspector Dick Gratton, an officer with the RCMP's customs and excise
section, said organized crime would be ecstatic if the border controls were
loosened.

Gratton said it's tough enough keeping drugs and guns out of the country
with border controls as they are. An open border would make it too easy for
criminals to smuggle in weapons, drugs and people, he said.

"I wouldn't be interested in it," he said. "I see a horrendous problem with it."

And Richard Lipsey, an economics professor at Simon Fraser University, said
handguns would be transported into Canada "by the truckload if there was an
open border."

The idea of an open border became a hot topic a few weeks ago when there
were some media reports that a common currency and customs union were on the
agenda of a federal cabinet at a retreat. Prime Minister Jean Chretien
denied the idea of an open border was being discussed by the government.

While there is a degree of free trade between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico,
there is still heavy border enforcement and significant restriction on the
movement of people -- as compared to the relatively open borders of the
European Community.

Lipsey said an open border would threaten Canada's political independence
from the United States.

One of the reasons why relatively open borders work in the European
Community, Lipsey said, is that those countries have integrated many other
aspects of their government -- everything from food regulation to labour codes.

But despite their close relationship, Canada and the United States are still
two very different countries -- something an open border would threaten,
Lipsey said.

"As long as you want to have separate policies on everything from trade with
different countries to different tariff rates to different drug and gun laws
- -- we've really got to have some border restrictions," he said.

At the moment, Lipsey said, Canada and the United States often have
different trade restrictions on goods coming in from other countries -- the
U.S. embargo on Cuba being the most striking example.

With an open border, Lipsey said, "Cuban cigars would just flood into the
United States."

And while widespread smuggling of drugs and guns exists now, Lipsey said, it
is a "trickle" compared to the flood of goods that would pass back and forth
between the two countries, uninspected and unimpeded, were the borders opened.

One interesting aspect of the Ekos survey is that it found those who visited
the U.S. recently were less willing to open up the borders. Fifty-two per
cent of those surveyed who had visited the U.S. during the last year saw a
need to retain an effective border-crossing system.

"That was one of the surprising little differences of opinion," said Alfred
MacLeod, executive director of Ekos. "There was a sense among those who had
visited the U.S. that the border offered some kind of protection to screen
out guns and drugs."

MacLeod said the fact that many Canadians either don't see a need for a
border, or at least are indifferent, reflects a general openness of
Canadians to the trends of globalized trade. When asked to express their
attitudes toward globalization, 52 per cent said they were optimistic,
compared to just 17 per cent who said they were pessimistic. More than half
of those who responded said globalization is rewarding to Canada while 20
per cent said it was damaging.

The survey also found Canadians feel Canada has abandoned its traditional
resource-based economy and is among the world leaders in adopting new
technologies. When asked what best describes the nation's economy, 67 per
cent said Canada has primarily a technology-based economy, while only 20 per
cent still believed Canada is dependent on low-tech industries such as
agriculture, mining and lumber. While Canadian industries have significantly
embraced technology, Canada is still enormously dependent on the export of
raw materials and low-level manufactured products, economists say.

Forty-four per cent of those surveyed said Canadian goods and services are
more competitive than those of major trading partners.

The national survey of 1,204 Canadians was conducted March 12-23 and is
considered accurate to within plus or minus 2.8 percentage points 190 times
out of 20.

In the report's conclusions, Canadians are said to be "remarkably sanguine"
about Canada's global readiness and its ability to compete. It states that
Canadians even possess a "perhaps inflated sense of Canada as a 'northern
tiger' " and that warnings about competitiveness have not hit home.