Canada in the Time of Covid

Canada opened to vaccinated travelers from the US on August 1. Entry is conditioned upon uploading passport and vaccination data in the Arrive Canada app no more than 72 hours before arriving at the border, along with results from a negative molecular test, also administered within 72 hours of arrival.

Only one clinic in Grand Marais offered Covid testing on a limited basis….. with no guarantee about the timing of results. We decided to take a chance, and arrived to sign up at 6:30 am on the date we wanted to be tested – a Tuesday, in hopes that we would get results soon enough to gain entry on Friday morning.

Luckily, there were few applicants on that day (they only test up to 10 per day), so we signed up and later drove through the hospital emergency bay for our test…..

Hooray! Our tests came back negative on Wednesday, so we headed to the border at Pigeon River, Ontario on Friday. An eerie experience – no one else at the border…. our paperwork was all in order, and we breezed through with only a few extra questions about our plans, how much booze we had and whether we had firearms or pepper spray. (Please note: pepper spray is not allowed, but pepper spray with a drawing of a bear on the can is….. since it then magically becomes bear spray, very important for campers in the wild.)

Entrants to Canada may also be selected randomly for follow-up testing, but we were not.

The visitors center across the border was also creepy-empty, with crime-scene tape stretched across the brochure racks and chairs, and a lonely masked agent behind the desk who sold us a map.

Ontario restaurants opened up to in-house dining on September 22, with restrictions.

All you have to do to eat out here is…… show proof of vaccination and photo identification. And then you complete a form with your phone number and email address for potential contact tracing…..

and voila! You are seated 2 meters from other diners and allowed to proceed with a meal!

Nobody seems to be complaining. Masking requirements are displayed at the door to virtually every indoor public place, including stores, motels, restaurants, gas stations, etc. and everybody complies. Easy-peasy….

It’s so refreshing, and we feel so much safer knowing that others are taking the same public health precautions we have.

Another of so many reasons to love Canada and the Canadians…..