As much a distress call for New Yorkers, 9/11 has become a wake up call for Canadians bewitched by the country's shrill economic nationalists. Desperate voices of protest against Canada forming a customs union and a security perimeter with the US is just one more example of how the sky-is-falling crowd has lost touch with the public.

A Compas poll in August showed that 64% of Canadians want a more open border with the US. Then, after September 11, Compas found that 74% of Canada's CEOs say that a common perimeter with the US is essential to protect cross border trade.

Most Canadians thank their lucky Stars and Stripes that we share a border the US instead of Afghanistan or Iraq. But out of the 60's-based protest movement survived this dated rump of economic illiterates who still actively denounce the US as a curse on civilization.

The outpouring of charitable aid and moral support for the US following September 11th revealed that Canadians largely identify with Americans and consider an attack on them as an attack on us; a sensible view, as we share a common continent and democratic values. To drive the point home, a rally for Canadians in support of the US is being held in the Big Apple on December 1st, called the "Canada loves New York" campaign.

The weak-kneed protectionists are terrified that a customs union (meaning goods from Canada or the US are treated as homemade products by both countries) and a security perimeter signals the end of Canadian values and sovereignty. They don't think Canadians have the mettle to compete with Americans when all the crutches are striped away.

It begs the question: are we any less Canadian now that over 80 % of our trade is with the US Are we any less of a nation because of the joint US/Canadian DEW line that monitors in-coming missiles into North America If not, then why would closer economic and security integration with the US compromise our national identity

If it's just common sense that small countries who hitch their economic wagons to larger countries sacrifice their national identity, then why is Slovenia or Estonia, with populations of less than 2 million people, willingly on the cusp of admission to the European Union after embarking on a far deeper form of economic, political, legal, administrative and environmental integration that anyone in Canada is proposing They rightly view admission to the world's largest trading block as an economic opportunity.

The distasteful alternative to an open border with the US is the choked border. If the US enacts security measures that disrupts the free flow of goods and displaces Canada as its largest trading partner, Canada's listless economy would have more in common with places like Argentina than we'd care to admit.

Trade would plummet, businesses would go belly-up before they have any chance to reorient exports to other countries. Thousands of jobs would be lost and wages would fall. Costs of imports from disrupted border crossings would rise as would inflation. Overall, Canada's standard of living visa-a-vis the US would head deeper into oblivion.

Mercifully, the banner of protectionism has been ghettoized to a minority of mindless hooligans protesting against globalization.

Let them have their fits of rage now and again but don't take their protectionist rubbish too seriously. Berlin walls are a thing of the past.