Apparently my brother had a box in the trunk with some survival books, living in the woods books and a few MRE type items. There were no weapons or anything that would trigger concern with any sane border agent. So we were escorted from the customs area to the immigration area.
The above is Very NORMAL in Canada. They think that folks come up to live off the land so to speak- and yes they were worried you would be in Canada, live there and voila, finally become a citizen
They worry