Canadian immigration controls can be just as bad, though you may get water. Like someone said above, it's all about people having power over others with zero accountability.

canadian CBP are a bag of cunts, as i can confirm myself.

sorry, but fuck canada. if you don't let me through your border, your country is unbelievably fucked.

maybe dismissing parliament one more time will help mr harper.

The difference now, perhaps, is that there is no longer a frontier left. 300 years ago, the people who wanted change and freedom from oppressive governments could sail away over the horizon and set up their own county in a new land. (That's not to deny there were limits to that: You needed to afford a ship, and to gather a large enough mass of people to actually build a successful settlement in the new world, and not to mention the ethical implications of the effects on the natives. All these were real issues, but despite them many people made their way to a new life in the new world, with perhaps a bit more "liberty and justice for all" than there was before.)