One of the most common refrains I hear from Americans of all political stripes, concerning an election outcome they don't like, is "I'll go to Canada".
Canadian Parliament Building. The parliament hasn't voted to open the doors to unhappy Americans over losing an election.
Canada is a sovereign nation with its own immigration policies and they don't want you. It's rude and presumptuous of you to assume you can just move in.
Why would they want you?
"Disgruntled about my country's politics" is not a category for immigration into any country, let alone to our neighbor the north which has a bit of a chip on its shoulder about the common American assumption that we somehow own Canada, or that Canada is "United States Lite" or something.
You aren't moving there. They don't want you. Unhappy with an election outcome just shows you are disgruntled, not that you'd make a good Canadian. Besides, you just can't "move there". They have to accept you as a resident, and there are a lot of other, non disgruntled people, from all over the world trying to do the same thing.
Not only that, but frankly, most Americans unhappy with our election outcomes would be really unhappy with Canadian ones. Think that Bernie Sanders is too darned far to the left? Have you heard of Justin Trudeau? Upset about Donald Trump and think the country's gone to far to the populist right? Are you aware that Canada actually does impose speech restrictions on some controversial matters, having no Constitutional prohibitions to the contrary. You, disgruntled American, aren't going to be happier there. You'll just be annoying Canadians.
3 comments:
Lol, we not only have Justin but our new premier here in Alberta (we refer to her as Nothead Notley) has some of us thinking we should move south.
I thing its really easy for Americans to forget that Canadian politics differ from American politics, and vice versa. There are some huge issues here that are much less pronounced up there. And there are some Constitutional concepts here which do not occur there.
We're fairly dense to that, however. The entire last Canadian parliamentary election was barely even noticed here, even though Justin Trudeau would be a candidate that would not do well in a normal election year here. It's almost impossible for Western Americans to grasp the change in provincial politics in Alberta for that matter, but most Americans hardly take note of them.
On the flipside, I find that Canadians (my mother is from Quebec and I retain family all over Canada) are often baffled by some of the hotly contested issues here even being issues.
The net result is that conservative Americans tend to think that Canada west of Ontario is just like the Western US in every way. Not so much. And liberal Americans tend to think that all they have to do is drive over the border from New York and they'll be greeted by red flags, given a seat of honor and enrolled in national health care. Again, not so much.
Here's an example of this:
Raven-Symoné: "My confession for this election is if any Republican gets nominated I'm gonna move to Canada with my entire family,"
First of all, some Republican is going to get nominated.
Some Democrat is also going to get nominated.
A Librarian will also be nominated.
Even a Communist will be nominated.
Every party, great and small, nominated somebody for President.
Presumably what she means is if any Republican gets elected to the Presidency she intends to go to Canada with her entire family.
What an assumption.
Canada sends entertainers to the United States. Lorne Greene, Michael J. Fox, John Candy, and so on.
Canada doesn't need entertainers from the US moving in.
Post a Comment