We Asked Experts About Scott Walker's Potential Canada-US Border Wall

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker thinks building a wall to separate Canada and the US might be a good idea.

The Republican presidential hopeful claimed in an interview with Meet the Press that Americans are concerned about terrorists entering the US through Canada and that physically dividing the two countries was therefore a "legitimate issue for us to look at."

VICE consulted border security experts and construction folks about the logistics of resurrecting an 5,525-mile fence. (Spoiler alert: Everyone thinks it's a dumb idea.)

Reece Jones, an associate professor of geography at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, has spent the past ten years researching the border-wall phenomenon. There are currently 65 such walls worldwide, he said, the majority of which were built in the last 20 years due to "perceived external threats."

His conclusion?

"From my perspective, walls are not successful at all in terms of securing borders."

In most cases, the barriers serve as little more than a deterrent, Jones explained; they can slow people down, but not stop them.

"If you build a 20-foot-high… wall, someone can build a 21-foot-high ladder," he said, pointing out tunnels are another popular way of bypassing border walls.

From a financial standpoint, Jones said a Canada-US border makes absolutely no sense. The partial US-Mexico border, made of steel and wire fencing, worked out to $6.5 million per mile. Assuming parts and labor would cost about the same, that means the bill for a Canada-US border would come in at around $36 billion.

"It would not be very cost-effective," said Jones.

In the spirit of innovation, VICE investigated a few different options for a Canada-US border wall.

Chain link fence
At a cost of $11 to $15 per foot, a chain link fence will provide the most bang for your buck, though Cathy Hofstetter, president of Scarborough's McGowan Fence and Supply Limited, said thousands of kilometers of it would still be "really, really expensive."

As for security, "All you have to do is cut a hole in the chain link and you can actually walk through it."

On the plus side, chain link fences are weather-resistant and have proven remarkably effective at keeping toddlers and small dogs in place.

Total estimated cost of chain link fence (minus labor, security, upkeep, ya know, the expensive stuff): $432 million

Expanded metal mesh
If you wanted to upgrade your chain-link border fence so that it could potentially serve its purpose, Hofstetter advised layering it with expanded metal mesh. The holes in the mesh are too tiny to fit even a finger through, so intruders wouldn't be able to scale the fence. "You'd have to actually have to use a saw to cut through it," she said.

Wood
Assuming Walker doesn't want his border-wall to be made of crappy two-by fours, good quality wood costs about $30 to $34 a foot.

Before it inevitably rots, something like cedar would provide an opportunity to showcase the finest North American carpentry. Would we go traditional with a white picket or cross-lattice design? Or contemporary—I'm feeling this built-in planter vibe.

Ultimately though, a wood fence is not going to stop anyone who really wants to get past it.

"I mean all you need is a saw or a hammer to take the boards off," Hofstetter said. "You could probably just give it a quick, swift kick."

Approximate cost of wood fence (minus labor, white paint, paint brushes): $972 million.

Electric fencing
These invisible force fields are meant to keep dogs within their yards; using a transmitter, they deliver electric shocks to the collars of pets who step out of bounds. (This dude who inexplicably tried it out himself swears they work on humans.)

Now all you need is to make sure everyone living north of the border is wearing a transmitter at all times.

Ice Wall
While we're pandering to American stereotypes about Canada, why not take a page out of Game of Thrones and build a badass wall of ice?

Of course, it would never compare to The Wall. That beast of a barrier, made of solid ice and allegedly designed by Bran the Builder, spans about 300 miles and rises about 700 feet tall. Believed to have been built 7,000 years ago, The Wall is the only thing separating the Seven Kingdoms from the bloodthirsty Wildlings who live beyond it. It is guarded by members of the Night's Watch, a once-noble brotherhood that now appears to be occupied by farmers and rapists.

However, with 17 castles over those 300 miles (or a castle every 17 miles) the cost of upkeep along the Canadian-US border would likely be prohibitive.

This "world-class" ice sculpture company charges $1,100 for three block frozen creations, so, something that would run the length of the Canada-US border would probably clock in at the $10 billion mark, plus the cost in lives fending off Wildlings and giants.

The only problem* is the ice wouldn't hold out for long, according to Mary Albert, an engineer at Dartmouth College who fact-checked the Game of Thrones wall for Wired.

"Even at very cold temperatures, large ice masses deform under their own weight," she told Wired. "And over long time scales, ice flows, so it would not hold its original shape for thousands of years." We might want to start with a test run along Alaska's 1,538-mile border with Canada.

Shrub
I know what you're thinking: a shrub isn't going to stop someone from crossing the border.

Well, as we've already established, neither is anything else. At least the shit would look nice, and, knowing Canadians, we'd probably even voluntarily keep our side trimmed.

*definitely not the only problem

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