Drudge headline: Americans flock to Canada's immigration Web site

[npincus]

http://www.reuters.co.uk/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=616225

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The number of U.S. citizens visiting Canada's main immigration Web site has shot up six-fold as Americans flirt with the idea of abandoning their homeland after President George W. Bush's election win this week.

"When we looked at the first day after the election, November 3, our Web site hit a new high, almost double the previous record high," immigration ministry spokeswoman Maria Iadinardi said on Friday.

On an average day some 20,000 people in the United States log onto the Web site, www.cic.gc.ca -- a figure which rocketed to 115,016 on Wednesday. The number of U.S. visits settled down to 65,803 on Thursday, still well above the norm.

Bush's victory sparked speculation that disconsolate Democrats and others might decide to start a new life in Canada, a land that tilts more to the left than the United States.

Would-be immigrants to Canada can apply to become permanent resident, a process that often takes a year. The other main way to move north on a long-term basis is to find a job, which requires a work permit


Well, it's really happening, folks. The first time a presidential election has driven Americans out of America. It makes perfect sense, but somehow, I don't want to give up on our country. We have to fix it.

[whirlygigspin]

1. it's not the first time

Upper Canada (Ontario) got most of it's population during the revolutionary war, when thousands of Loyalist abandoned or fled their lands & properties in America. Most of their property was confiscated by the Continental Congress. Even the house I grew up in was built by one of those people, they had 200acres in Duchess County, New York; restitution was never made to any of those people, and many of their descendants still bitterly resent it.

Many more moved back and forth during the great depression of 1837.
Big factory towns like Lowell Mass drew thousands at that time.
The border stayed open for most of the time after that and people flowed back and forth, depending on economic circumstance, and as was the case in WWII people went to Canada to join the fight, in Vietnam, they went to avoid it.

Today, unfortunately, that history is forgotten, and we seem to be repeating mistakes made long ago and at terrible cost.
This is nothing new, our history is shared.

[npincus]

2. thank you for sharing- very interesting.

Did a US presidential election ever drive Americans north, at least in the magnitude the article suggests might occur?

[whirlygigspin]

3. not that I know of...

I think this is the calm before the storm.