Condi comes to visit MacKay

shall history repeat itself: remember in bush visited canada, and he thanked Canadians who waved a welcome to him "with all five fingers" on his first official visit to Canada ... then as reporter Antonia Zerbisias from the Toronto Star commented .... "Yeah, well, we used all five fingers because that's the way our mitts are made". ...

Top U.S. officials to visit Canada on Feb. 23
Feb. 7 2007 / CTV

Border security issues are expected to top the agenda when two top Bush administration officials pay a visit to Ottawa on Feb. 23.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Michael Chertoff, the homeland security czar, will be coming, Robert Fife, CTV's Ottawa bureau chief, told Newsnet's Mike Duffy Live on Wednesday.

"They will be holding high-level meetings with Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, Trade Minister David Emerson and their Mexican counterparts," he said.

A big concern for the Americans will be Canada's slow progress in implementing secure form of identification, he said.

"It's getting these smart cards and harmonizing them with the Americans so they can move across the border much quicker," Fife said.

The U.S. now requires Canadians and Americans to show a passport to travel to the United States by air. That requirement will extend to land-based travellers in 2009.

"If we think we see lineups at passport offices now, just wait until the land requirement kicks in," said Toronto Star parliamentary reporter Tonda MacCharles.

Host Mike Duffy said Canadian diplomats have mainly worked on delaying implementation of the new rules.

"Americans are very concerned that Canada is dragging its feet," Fife said.

The technology is there for developing cards with biometric identifiers, he said.

Actually, the Liberal government had done much legwork on the issue. "My understanding from the Americans is the Conservative government hasn't been moving at all," he said.

The passport/border issue came up in the House of Commons' question period on Monday, when Liberal MP Belinda Stronach attacked the Tories for a lack of leadership.

"As soon as we formed government, the prime minister made that one of his very top issues with President Bush," Day told Mike Duffy Live on Monday.

"Alternative documents are going to be acceptable, and we already have some of those that will meet the standards," he said.

B.C. and Washington have a pilot project that involves upgraded drivers' licences. The U.S. approves of that experiment, he said.

Besides border security issues, the meeting is expected to address other issues like trade, Fife said.