Went to Canada one time, crossed over up in NY around Niagara falls. Canadian officials put us through the ringer. Made us pull the kids outta the car, even the baby out of the baby seat and wait inside while they searched the vehicle thru and thru. All over a pack of cigarettes on the dashboard I failed to declare.
We finally went about our way, a day or so later, we approached the U.S. border with Canada. The border patrol agent sittin in a small booth slides the door open and said,”Citizenship?”, I said, “American”....waved me on.
Couldn't believe it. He was lounged back reading a book. Barely even looked at us. True story.
I had the opposite experience. Heading into Canada the customs guy was half-leaning against his booth and said “Welcome to Canada, eh? Where ya headed? What’s in the cooler? OK, have a nice day, eh?”
Meanwhile coming back to the States a guy who reminded me of Broaderick Crawford from Highway Patrol played Twenty Questions with me while his colleague snuck around the vehicle giving us the close inspection.
Five years ago coming back from Canada in Wash. St., the U.S. customs guy asked me about ten questions including one about a city in my state of Wisconsin, New London. I said I had never heard of it and thought the guy was making it up. Later on got out the map of Wisconsin, and sure enough, New London is near Green Bay.
Years ago, I met a US crossing agent at Sault Ste. Marie, and he was much like you describe, a very easy going fellow.
In 1991, I moved from Ottawa, ON to Lethbridge, AB. I was single, didn’t have much, and had a carload full of my ‘stuff’ (clothes, stereo, TV, etc.). The most direct route was to cross at Sault Ste. Marie, drive a short distance on I-75, and shortly thereafter, take US Hwy #2 and then I-15 into AB.
I hit the SSM crossing at about 3:00 PM on a rather hot Spring day. The agent looked very bored, sitting in his booth, and seemed a little irritated that he had to adjust in his seat, to ask me some questions. He asked me where I was from and where I was going and if I was bringing any money with me. I explained my trip and that I had the princely sum of $100 US in cash and $100 US in traveller’s cheques to carry me across to Canada.
Using the slightest muscle exertion possible, he waved me through. I thanked him and expressed my relief that I didn’t have to empty my car for him to search it. He pointedly asked, “If you WANT it searched, back the car over to that shed, and I’ll search it.” I replied, “No, thanks.”, and he waved me through again, using the least muscle exertion that was possible!
At the Sweetgrass/Coutts crossing, Canada Customs did not require a search, but were VERY snooty that a Canadian would drive through the US, to come to AB. The bottom line was, even with the USD/CDN exchange, hotels, gas and food cost less in the US than Canada, AND the trip was shorter. If I had been moving to Calgary from Ottawa, the ‘all-Canadian’ route would have been shorter, but more expensive.
Even after 9/11, I found that US Customs agents were friendlier than Canada Customs agents by a long shot, at least at ‘land’ crossings. Never having flown into the US, I have no idea how US Customs is at a ‘per-clearance’ airport like YYC. Private security firms that do pre-flight screening at Canadian airports (at least YYC and YOW) tend to be new to Canada and have more melanin than the average Canadian of fifty years ago. They also tend to search more ‘melanin challenged’ people than those with feature such as theirs. Often times, the biggest ‘challenge’ to them is THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE!