Ce qu'ils en disent

«Nous devrions dire qu'il s'agit de la frontière la plus longue et la plus sûre au monde.»

«Ce ne sont pas d'imposantes barrières physiques qui rendent cette frontière sûre. En effet, c'est plutôt en grande partie parce que les citoyens des deux pays sont pacifiques et respectueux des lois, et aussi parce que nous avons des équipes spécialisées, très professionnelles et axées sur les risques qui sont formées de policiers, d'agents de renseignement et d'agents de l'immigration et qui accomplissent un excellent travail derrière nos frontières.»

«Le Canada et les États-Unis continueront de faire en sorte que cette frontière soit sûre et sécurisée. La question que nous sommes appelés à examiner aujourd'hui consiste à déterminer la meilleure façon d'y parvenir, vu la nature particulière des relations canado-américaines et la complexité de nos relations économiques.»

«La gestion de notre frontière commune constitue un élément extrêmement important des échanges et des investissements entre le Canada et les États-Unis. Il faut agir avec précaution.»

«Nous devons absolument parvenir à un équilibre entre les objectifs économiques et de sécurité, entre les déplacements légitimes et non légitimes, entre les statuts de point d'entrée et de poste de contrôle de notre frontière commune.»

"There is no one in Washington, no one in the United States that wants to impede or do anything detrimental to this wonderful trade relationship we have with our friend Canada. The largest trading relationship the world has ever known. We don't want to do anything to impede tourism between our two countries...But what we need to do, I believe, is all get onboard and work toward a smooth implementation."

"We want and are very attentive to the issue of keeping an open border where commerce can take place. I'm very aware that it's not just commerce, but you know little kids go to play hockey in the United States and vice versa, and we want to keep that kind of openness among people."

"We tend to forget how daily and in some ways ordinary the U.S.-Canada relationship is. Our people are always going back and forth. We're in constant trade. It is just the most active of relationships at the level of people to people, not just government to government."

"If the fight for security ends up meaning that the United States becomes more closed to its friends, then the terrorists have won."

"I would hate to see a law go into place that has the effect of not just limiting or endangering trade or tourism, but endangering all those thousands of social interactions that occur across our border every day and are the reason why Canada and the United States have the strongest relationship of any two countries, not just on the planet, but in the history of mankind."

"We in Canada share the United States' security concerns and objectives. It's been brought home to all of us that we face exactly the same kind of security threats and are defending exactly the same kinds of values."

"If the Congress provides flexibility, of course we will work with the Canadian government to extend deadlines. If the Congress says, 'No, this is what our intent is,' we will work with the Canadian government to make the law work."

"When I first read that in the newspaper, about the need to have passports ... I said, what's going on here. I thought there was a better way ... to expedite [the] legal flow of traffic and people ... if people have to have a passport, it's going to disrupt [the] honest flow of traffic. I think there's some flexibility in the law. And that's what we're checking out right now."