Originally Posted by
worldtrav
Probably a subject for OMNI but I find it interesting that there's a picture of the Queen on Canadian bank notes, obviously two nations very close to each other, yet the Brits need the ETA and US citizens don't...... yet.
Having the same person as a head of state doesn't eliminate or even necessarily simplify the crossing of borders. For example, the Pakistanis who had the same head of state as the UK but had to still jump through hoops to get into the UK.
The Canadian set up for ETA won't be used for US citizens. The US and Canada have agreements in place that would need to be changed on both sides before Canada or the US implement ETA/ESTA type requirements on citizens of each other.
This cross border travel allowance is yet another area where the US and Canada are closer than Canada is to the UK.