I never have a problem and I am NOT a police officer. And yes Canadians can get CCW permits from various States that will isssue them to non-residents or will issue Resident CCW permits to those Canadians that have secondary residents in those States. I have a couple of CCW permits. It costs us more and the process is longer but they are availble for those people that want to make the effort to get the CCW permits. And yes Americans can bring handguns into Canada for legitimate sporting purposes as well.
Prior approval has to be obtained.
You just can't show up at the border without the permit and declare that you have a handgun because they won't let you in. Failure to declare your gun can have serious side affects including the gun's confiscation and you won't get it back. I am not in favour of our strict laws. They are similar to New York City. I'm a LA LEO who recently planned to travel throughy Illinois and in Chicago.