hi Mr VT, this has always been my take on this topic, and how I've travelled and locked up. Being in Montreal one has to be very wary, lucky and touch wood just talking about this--but on tour not in big cities, as you say, chances are slim (touch wood knock knock) so using common sense while shopping etc is the key word here. I too have aversions to keys on tour, and would never use that type of lock.
djb,
Funny, I toured on the Le Petit Train du Nord and the trails in the Eastern Twp, and always felt much safer in the "bike" culture that is Quebec. Never locked my bike when I've been up there. Of course, downtown is no doubt much different, but I guess being ignorant of likelyhood of thief made my visit that much more enjoyable. To some extent its also my current lifestyle. We don't lock our house or garage, I only lock my car in downtown Burlington. I try to not worry about theft of items since that only creates stress, which I try to avoid. Also, in the grand scheme of things, the likelyhood of your bike being stolen is very small, even without locking it, so I choose to not worry about it.