Funny you would say that.I've done a good amount of traveling in my day.Trips to First World *and* Third World countries.Among those trip are about a dozen crossings of the US/Canada border...all by car.Canada is the only country that's ever given me *any* trouble at the border.I was "detained" (no handcuffs but not free to leave) for 90 minutes while the guards took my car apart,demanded the password to my laptop and asked me dozens of questions about firearms.They were always polite and "correct" but they also made it clear that they were not my friend.After their search I was allowed to proceed.The only thing I can think of is that given I have a very common name (and appearance) someone with my name might have been on some watch list.
As for the other crossings the Canadians were friendlier to me than were the US guards when returning home.
I wonder if on the US/Canada border an agent is likely to be more harsh with their own citizens than citizens of the other country.
The last time I crossed the border, I went to buy a US lottery ticket. At the time, the grand prize was huge, though not compared to the prizes today. Going South, I had no problem. I chatted briefly with the young lady border guard. We were at the main Alberta/Montana crossing, and it turned out that she was from Alexandria Bay, NY and I, from Ottawa and had spent some time in the ‘A Bay’s bars, so we had a little chat. The only slight issue that arose, was when I unlocked the car for them to look inside. The automatic door lock made a ‘click, click’ when I unlocked it. To me, it sounded like the noise of an automatic pistol being set to fire, at least the sound as portrayed on TV. It startled me and appeared to slightly startle the border guards for just a second. They realized it was just the door lock, so they looked inside and saw I had nothing in the car, and sent me on my way.
When I returned to Canada, less than 1/2 hour later, the Canada Customs agents had a real attitude, especially when I explained my trip of less than 1/2 hour to get a lottery ticket. There was no search, but they had ATTITUDE!