Fred Smith is an idiot. He's like Bill O'Reilly or that moron with the bow tie.
The North Dakota official they quoted started jumping through hoops as soon as the story hit here because, as soon as it hit, people began talking about boycotting North Dakota. We have a much longer list of reasons...BSE, BMD, softwood lumber, attacks on the Wheat Board, the hog duty that was found to be illegal, their constant threats on our water, the continued existence of George Bush on the planet, their refusal to get Canadian currency and then the way they complain when some store clerk can't give them the exact exchange rate they want. The call-in shows about this were very interesting.
Smith ignores some other things too...little facts like Manitoba having several US states on its side. North Dakota, it seems, has a long history of dumping its problems on its neighbours.
What the North Dakota tourism people are afraid of is that we will boycott them in return. A lot more money flows south than comes north and Minnesota, a state that's backing Manitoba on the Devil's Lake issue, isn't that much further a drive.
