NOTE: I am NOT looking for any form of debate, political sniping, etc.
Are there any hard-and-fast statistics on how many Americans, disappointed with the re-election of George W Bush, actually followed through on plans to move to Canada if he was re-elected?
According to Canadian Immigration, immigration from the US increased steadily from 2003-2006. 2003 was the lowest year registered since 2000, while 2006 was the highest of that group. So there was an increase, but it’s hard to say how much was just a return to more normal levels after the low levels in 2004 and how much was just plain economic factors, and how much was disgruntled liberals.
I don’t know any numbers on the topic, but for purposes of discussion it’s worth pointing out that Canada has restrictions on immigration. Joe Random, disgruntled US liberal, can’t just up and move there without a lot of hoops to jump through. I think the last time I checked an online “are you someone we’re interested in” questionnaire for Canada, I was considered marginally acceptable but not in high demand (barely remember any French, work in medical research but not a doctor/PhD), and my non-French-speaking postal worker husband wasn’t a priority at all for them.
So threatening to up and leave for another country isn’t necessarily easy to carry out. I think a lot of Americans, regardless of political affiliation, think that getting into the US legally is kind of hard but don’t realize that we can’t just have our pick of the world to emigrate to.
To elaborate on Ferret Herder’s comments, the average American citizen wanting to move to Canada faces a Catch-22: in most circumstances Immigration Canada will not accept your application unless you can prove you’ll get employment in Canada–but the vast majority of Canadian companies aren’t likely to employ you unless you have Canadian resident status.
This is what I faced when I applied for a job in Canada myself some years ago. The university I wanted to work for was happy to look at my application, but informed me that as a non-resident I could only be considered if no qualified Canadian residents applied for the position. Even if my application was considered better than any Canadian who applied, as long as at least one qualified Canadian wanted the job, my application would not be considered.
How many Rebublicans or Conservatives moved to Canada after Clinton was elected? Or Obama? Certainly there were claims that people would do so in either case. But that seems forgotten now.
I suspect most people see it as too much of a hassle over what is, after all, a temporary condition.
I think this is the key point. Anybody with enough resources to actually plan and make such a move has probably been around long enough to know that politics goes in cycles, and nothing lasts forever.
I agree it’s hard to get into Canada. I was offered a job in Toronto and Edmonton back in the early 00s and they refused me entry. Immigration said, “If a Canadian can do the job, then you can’t have it.”
Which is a vast difference from US immigration policy, which is far more liberal.
So unless you have a skill or a lot of money and are willing to plunk it down as an assurance, it’s pretty hard to move anywhere in the “Western world” today.
Ah, but who knows how many American illegals are up there? I understand the Canadians haven’t sealed that border.
And yet, Wikipedia cites a study that says that Canada has the highest per capita rate of immigration in the world. The target for 2010 was apparently 240,000 to 265,000 new permanent residents, fairly consistent with recent years. Contrast this with 1.27 million new American legal residents in 2006, or about half the rate of Canada.
It’s not easy. I did it, but I spent a lot of time waiting for there to be no Canadian who could do the job.
What portion of those new permanent residents are coming in on refugee status, though? I think when people are talking it being hard to move to Canada they mean it’s hard to move to Canada to work. Since refugees do not have to prove all of the occupational requirements of non-refugees, the numbers don’t really tell much.
What actually would be more telling is compare the entrance requirements for permanent residency in the United States versus the entrance requirements for Canada.
They did? I though hard-core conservatives favored “2nd amendment remedies” over fleeing to “liberal” Canada.
Not trying to be political here, but it’s hard for me to imagine the Rush Limbaugh crowd threatening to move to Canada.
Cite?
Has anyone from the US tried the “political refugee” angle? I’m assuming that it wouldn’t work, because it’s not like the conservatives are dragging liberals out of their houses and hanging them, etc. However, the political/social environment is pretty hostile towards anyone to the left of John Birch anymore, and fairly necessary and reasonable benefits are getting slashing with extreme predjudice.
That is an opinion, not a fact. I would argue that the first part is factually incorrect, but I don’t want to take this into a debate. I’ll even grant you some hyperbole about “John Birch” and you’re still wrong.
Well, it was part of the reason why I didn’t move back to the US from China. I did after Obama was elected though. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. 
In general you have to face some severe consequences, or a “well-founded fear of persecution” on return to your homeland to get refugee status in Canada. Here’s a website listing examples of things that would qualify for consideration of refugee status. I don’t think any of these really are common in the US.
I do note that:
“A union leader who is threatened with violence by businesses who enjoy tacit support from the government”
“A teacher in a country where intellectuals are denounced as traitors of the people”
are on there, so maybe if you’re from Wisconsin.
On a related note, does anybody remember which celebrities threatened to move to Canada if Bush was reelected? There were at least a few. I’m pretty sure Whoopie Goldberg was one of them.
They really have no place to go, given that even Obama and Clinton are right wing by most standards. Anyplace they might go is either much farther to the left or has a much worse quality of life, or both. Something to keep in mind when you hear the standard speech about how if we raise taxes on them the rich will flee the country - where would they go?