Americans Mull Moving To Canada Following Obama Election, Search Engine Traffic Finds

BY Eleazar David Meléndez | November 09 2012 9:48 PM

Move to Canada, eh? Conservative Americans are thinking about it.

More Americans researched how to “move to Canada” after the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday than at any other time since President George W. Bush won a second White House term in 2004.

The sudden spike in search-engine traffic for the phrase -- and the related phrase “moving to Canada” -- is evident in the accompanying graphic, which shows interest in the topic as measured by the search engine Google. The spike has been driven by Web users in more or less conservative states such as Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas, as well as in liberal urban outposts in California and Illinois.

Saying they will “move to Canada” whenever their preferred presidential candidate does not win an election is stereotypical hyperbole voiced by liberal Democrats around election time -- the implication being that Canada hosts a more egalitarian society and hence is a more desirable place to live.

But it appears distraught conservative Republicans are the ones who have been primarily fueling the emigre conversations this time.

Addressing the topic in a blog post for the libertarian Reason.com, managing editor J.D. Tuccille wrote: "Assuming that the disappointed righties are of the sort that care more about economic freedom [as evidenced by comparatively low tax rates and relatively little regulation] than banning abortions, Canada actually looks like a pretty promising destination."

Reason.com wasn’t the only conservative outlet entertaining fantasies of leaving the States behind. AsPolitico reported, a Fox23 traffic reporter in Tulsa, Okla., on Wednesday delivered a deadpan set of directions on how to make the trip from Tulsa to Winnipeg, telling viewers -- and colleagues laughing in the newsroom -- “This is serious stuff.”

The only thing American border-hoppers might find not so promising: Canadian immigration rules, which have become considerably tighter in recent years.

“Don’t just assume you will be able to cross the border because you don’t like it in the U.S. anymore,” Henry Chang, an immigration attorney with Blaney McMurtry in Toronto, told Forbes before the election.

Of course, most people searching for the next flight to Quebec won’t get that far. Lawyer David Cohen, a partner at Campbell Cohen in Montreal who has specialized in immigration law for more than 30 years, told CNN that only three or four people he has consulted had made good on the threat to move to Canada for political reasons.

Admitting as much in his Reason.com blog post, Tuccille wrote, “[I]t's unlikely that conservatives will head to the Great White North in any substantial numbers. But it's worth knowing that Canada, far from being some two-dimensional pinko version of government-subsidized paradise, has more economic freedom than the nasty, uber-capitalist United States, in many ways.”

Immigration: Ontario seeks more power to pick skilled and moneyed newcomers

Nicholas Keung
Immigration Reporter 

Ontario wants more control of immigrant selection in its attempt to wrestle with declining immigration, newcomers’ poor job prospects and unmet labour market needs.

In unveiling the province’s new immigration strategy Monday, Immigration Minister Charles Sousa said Ontario must attract a better-skilled workforce by raising the ratio of economic migrants and expanding the federally imposed quota of “provincial nominees” — immigrants the province has a role in choosing — five-fold, to 5,000 a year by 2014.

“This is a bold new direction for immigration in Ontario. It sets a path so we can attract highly skilled immigrants and investors that we need to fuel economic growth and help build stronger communities,” said Sousa, who will discuss the plan with federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney at a meeting in mid-November.

Ontario has seen its share of immigrants to Canada drop by one-third, from 148,640 in 2001 to 99,000 in 2011. In other provinces, seven out of 10 immigrants settling in other provinces belong to the “economic” class — skilled workers and investors, as opposed to refugees and people reuniting with family members. But “economic” immigrants account for only 52 per cent of newcomers to Ontario.

With a growing knowledge-based economy and decimation of manufacturing jobs, Ontario’s newcomers earned 23.2 per cent less than their Canadian counterparts in 2011 and had a jobless rate of 15.7 per cent.

Yet, Ontario is expected to face a shortage of 364,000 skilled workers by 2025.

Sousa said Ottawa is partially responsible for Ontario’s immigration woes because of the restrictions it has placed on the federal skilled worker program, the main source of the province’s newcomers.

Calling the action plan “critical” to Ontario’s future, Ontario Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Allan O’Dette said he hoped it would reverse the province’s immigration decline and help address its skills gaps.

Kenney declined to comment on the plan. But critics said they were glad to see Queen’s Park “standing up against the Conservative government” for shortchanging Ontario.