Unpredictable. Unfocused. Just like life.

The Los Angeles Times has a big article on the state of the Canadian border. "North Border's Guards Who Don't" mentions the fact that unionized Canadian border guards walk off the job in response to reports of dangerous suspects headed north from the US:

Roughly a dozen times in the last four months, Canadian border guards, who unlike their U.S. counterparts are unarmed, have left their posts in response to reports of dangerous suspects heading north.

The walk-offs, spanning the border at posts from here to New York, have closed the crossings for periods of a few minutes up to several hours. In the most recent incident, Feb. 10, traffic heading from Blaine into British Columbia was backed up for three hours after Canadian guards left their posts in response to a report that a murder suspect from the Seattle area might be headed their way. The alleged killer never materialized.

You can't really blame them though; Canadian border guards are unarmed. The former Liberal government apparently had a reason for that:

Officials of the Liberal Party, which was in charge until recently, generally opposed the idea. As then-Revenue Minister Martin Cauchon put it a few years ago: "Side arms would not reflect our image."

Union president Ron Moran had this to say:

"Primarily, this has been an image thing. We're a peaceful nation, with Canadians being proud of the fact that we don't greet people at the border crossings with someone who's armed," said Ron Moran, the union's president.

"But the reality is that we don't live in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood anymore."