I dislike the words 'foreign' and 'foreigners'. They are used more frequently since inter-cultural fear and paranoia intensified after 9/11/01. The spunky Ms Clinton said a week ago, "I don't think anyone should tell the people of Ohio one thing and tell a foreign (i.e. the Canadian) government something else". She was accusing Barak Obama of covertly reassuring Ottawa about threatened rejection of the North American Free Trade Agreement. We may have as much to fear from politicians who would build new tariff walls as from terrorists who breach border defences.

NAFTA might benefit from some revision. The U.S.A. will need more resources from nearby Canada as transportation costs rise and as newly industrialised nations compete for those once imported from afar. This land should flex its muscles as a future energy and fresh water 'superpower'. International competition is to be expected but in today's One World 'foreign' is another f-word.

It comes from the Latin 'foris' meaning 'out of doors'. The allusion was to neighbours who lived next to or nearby one's own property or, by extension, to people "beyond the City". It was equally applicable to a next-door neighbour or to a hirsute "barbarian". Roman citizens did not sport beards. In our language it has acquired an unpleasant meaning. Especially since Middle Eastern extremists have begun armed jihad against any who challenge their religious or cultural particularities, the word 'foreign' is burdened with suspicion and xenophobia. And that will not change until both tribal violence and (capitalist?) economic exploitation are replaced by international justice and peace.

When I was a graduate student in New York where the blue flag of Columbia University still bears the white crown of the royally chartered King's College I was classed as a foreign student even though few suspected me of being so. Some thought I was from some other part of 'America'. Indeed, I was. Some were intrigued by meeting a living Loyalist. Other Commonwealth students were heartened by the presence of a North American brother.

Either forgotten or unknown by USAnians was the legend on the 1921 Peace Arch between Surrey, B.C. and Blaine, WA that calls Canada and the United States "Children of a Common Mother". Both are heirs of Magna Carta and of the Common Law. For one it may cost multimillions of dollars to elect a future president and for the other only some relatively inexpensive skulduggery before national party conventions to choose a future prime minister. The two countries do things differently but in each case, one likes to think, democracy flourishes.

In New York, as a foreign student, I was sometimes invited to attend a social function at which I was asked to wear my native costume. Since naked I came into this world, the suggestion needed some interpretation. Was it the late Bob Hope who said that you know you are getting old when even your birthday suit needs pressing?

It is almost two generations since Canadians have used the word 'foreign' very much. For all their peculiarities, some endearing and some annoying, I have difficulty thinking of 'United Statsers', who presume to think of themselves as the only Americans, as foreigners. Nor do I think of the English, or even the Irish, and certainly not the Scots, as in any sense aliens. And since the Second Great War the arrival here of so many "New Canadians", as we were taught to think of them, has broadened our understanding of who and what a Canadian is.

Our newspapers may insist on calling the United States "America" but this column sees that as being the same thing as calling Germany alone "Europe" or as denying that the British are Europeans. I who was born in British North America now think of myself as a Canadian - perhaps, as a "free"- North American. I do not see myself as a foreigner anywhere between the Rio Grande and the North Pole. Nor would I feel so in Australia, New Zealand or, for that matter, in the Falkland Islands.

Some of us remember well the common use of derogatory terms for newcomers and visible minorities in this country. Innocently, we did not think of "Negro" as an insulting word but other commonly used terms were, indeed, known to be demeaning to blacks. Recently immigrant Jews suffered the same verbal indignities. So did Italians who came from the very heart of our inherited European culture. "Waps" were definitely not white anglo-protestants and Roman Catholics whom most Christians number among their ancestors, if not among their friends and relatives, suffered under several discriminatory labels.

That has all but passed away. Europeans have blended easily into the Canadian scene. Teachers know that students of Asian heritage are among their best. Pastors appreciate the contribution of African, Caribbean and South American congregants to the life of their parishes. What we once thought to be unpronounceable names need not now be anglicised. We learn to respect them, as do those who inherited them. My children remember the very English woman who 'babysat' them in Montréal. She had married a Polish soldier named Mozdieniewicz. They learned not to say "That's a funny name". They called her "Mrs. Moz".

The federal government has tried to kill a bill that unexpectedly passed third reading in the House of Commons last week and that would allow parents up to $5,000 tax-free annually for their children's post-secondary education. Some European countries provide tuition-free university courses for students who qualify academically. Canada should move in that direction. Overseas students are much sought after by our universities but it is precisely the children of low income earners, such as are many immigrant parents, who suffer most from the high cost of higher education.

Both in the blue and white collar work forces this nation needs immigrants from every part of the world who are willing to endure our northern climate and to live peaceably with others under our laws. They should not be thought of as foreigners. A contemporary Canadian should agree with the Roman playwright, Terence (circa 150 B.C.), who said, "Homo sum. .Nihil humanum a me alienum est" - " I am a man. Nothing human is alien to me".