Last evening at 9:52 pm, I received the following text message on my cell phone:

“Welcome to Canada. As talk, text and data is included in your domestic plan you’ll have no additional charges while roaming. High speed data is up to 1GB/day. If you need help visit [website] or call [phone number]. Enjoy your trip.”

Here is the deal: I was at home. My phone was on its charger at the end of the day. I was not using my phone, although my phone was probably connecting to cellular service to receive an email, text, or just check its clock. I suspect that the cell phone tower it usually connects with when we are at home was temporarily out of service and it connected with a tower just across the border.

Here is what I wonder: If someone was investigating my whereabouts at 9:52 pm on Monday, April 4, 2022, and using my cell phone for information, would they be misled by such a message? Theoretically, of course, the map function and location services on my phone would show my GPS location to still be in the United States.

There is a joke that we used to tell when we lived in North Dakota. When it was windy, which was common, we told people that the wind was necessary to hold the line between North and South Dakota in place. “When the wind lets up for a day,” we’d say, “the state line drifts up north of town and we are temporarily in South Dakota, which means that the sales tax goes down until the wind picks up again.”

It has been really windy here the last few days, with the prevailing wind direction being from the Southwest. Perhaps the wind let up at exactly 9:52 pm last night long enough for us to temporarily be in Canada. After all, we live about the same distance from the border with Canada as we lived from the boundary between North and South Dakota back then.

The geopolitical boundaries between countries are artificial. The particular place where we live has been claimed by several different countries including Spain, Great Britain and the United States. Prior to June 15, 1846, when the Oregon Treaty was signed, there wasn’t a completely defined boundary between the United States and Canada out here in the west. At that time neither the Polk Administration in Washington, D.C., nor the British government wanted a third Anglo-American war, though there was a bit of saber rattling and a few threats made on both sides. A compromise was made and the U.S./Canadian border was extended along the 49th parallel to the Straight of Georgia. The terms of the treaty retained the city of Victoria, on Vancouver island, as the capitol of British Columbia. All of that island was ceded to be Canadian. So where we live, the border is very close not just to our north, but also to our west.

Indigenous tribes had lived in the region for a very long time - since time immemorial according to tribal histories - and they had no concept of a political boundary drawn along some imaginary line. They had family on both sides of the border and considered themselves to be of the same region and nation. There was little or no enforcement of the boundary between the countries and people passed freely across the border to remain connected to family and friends. Although border stations were established on major roads, the countries did not require passports or other federally-approved ID for U.S. - Canada travel until June of 2009. It has just been the last 13 years of the 176 years since the Oregon Treaty that people have had to go through much of a process to cross the border.

Point Roberts, connected to the mainland south of the city of Vancouver, is part of the United States, but to travel by road to any other part of the US requires going through Canada. We have a neighbor, just down the road from our Son’s place, who delivers fuel oil to Point Roberts. He crosses the border multiple times each week and continued to do so even when the border was officially closed to non-essential travel during the Covid Pandemic. There was still quite a bit of traffic going back and forth. However, the free flow of people across the border has been interrupted for two years now. Families couldn’t get together in their usual ways. Funerals were disrupted. People were separated by the restrictions. But last Friday, the requirement of a pre-entry PCR test was dropped. The locals have been looking forward to the opening of the border. There are a lot of businesses that serve people from both sides of the border. Yesterday I was visiting with some long-term residents of the area who were telling me their expectations that traffic will soon increase on the Interstate, wait times to cross the border will increase, and we will be seeing a lot more Canadians who come across the border to shop at local businesses. In our town there are several mailbox services that receive deliveries for Canadians who make online purchases in the US, have the goods delivered to a mailbox, and then drive across the border to pick up their packages, avoiding import duties and fees. While they are in town they have lunch at a local cafe or pick up other supplies at local stores.

Since we moved during the pandemic, when the border was closed, we don’t know what to expect as commerce returns to normal. It seems to me that there are plenty of British Columbia license plates on the highway already and we are used to seeing folks from Canada here. Many local businesses fly both Canadian and U.S. Flags.

Similar events are taking place along borders all around the globe. For the people who have lived for generations in the region, the boundaries are not as important as the relationships they have with friends and family.

I expect that we will soon begin traveling to Vancouver for some goods and services. It is the nearest large city to our home. After all, if my cell phone doesn’t know which country I’m in, I doubt that it will matter much to anyone else. All the same, I think I’ll take my passport with me. I might need it to come home.