itsgigglegirl

Americans Flock to Canada's Immigration Web Site

Fri Nov 5, 2:22 PM ET Oddly Enough - Reuters


By David Ljunggren

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 Bush (news - web sites)'s election win this week.



"When we looked at the first day after the election, Nov. 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.


But please spare the sob stories.


Asked whether an applicant would be looked upon more sympathetically if they claimed to be a sad Democrat seeking to escape four more years of Bush, Iadinardi replied: "There would be no weight given to statements of feelings."


Canada is one of the few major nations with an large-scale immigration policy. Ottawa is seeking to attract between 220,000 and 240,000 newcomers next year.


"Let's face it, we have a population of a little over 32 million and we definitely need permanent residents to come to Canada," said Iadinardi. "If we could meet (the 2005) target and go above it, the more the merrier."


But right now it is too early to say whether the increased interest will result in more applications.


"There is no unusual activity occurring at our visa missions (in the United States). Having someone who intends to come to Canada is not the same as someone actually putting in an application," said Iadinardi.


"We'll only find out whether there has been an increase in applications in six months."


The waiting time to become a citizen is shorter for people married to Canadians, which prompted the birth of a satirical Web site called www.marryanamerican.ca.


The idea of increased immigration by unhappy Americans is triggering some amusement in Canada. Commentator Thane Burnett of the Ottawa Sun newspaper wrote a tongue-in-cheek guide to would-be new citizens on Friday.


"As Canadians, you'll have to learn to embrace and use all the products and culture of Americans, while bad-mouthing their way of life," he said.

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ahhhhh...so many reasons why i love canada

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Shake like an earthquake, and cut like a guillotine

orbz

I was having a big argument in a Purerave article discussion with an American about this. Turns out I was way freakin' right.

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You call yourself hardcore?
You only scratching the surface.

perry461

I'd read it....but PR being down and all.....grrrr

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pointy_sticks

Looks like I'm already qualified!

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I'm a girl!

Dj Candykid

i wanna move to canada.. it reminds me of my country.. aww

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The Orise

i have been considering it! but you cant escape the skull and bones society no matter where you go........damn new world order~

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Nuthin But Respect

orbz

suggestion: change things

you can't run from globalization

kandeegirl2

that's the scary part. the nwo is eminent and there really isn't anything we can do about it.

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Definition of love:
the ability to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.

butrfly_god_s

^^ Everything is pretty scary right now, but you can't give up hope. It is thinking like this that lets them overtake everything, because what can we do about it? We can do a lot, but it will take some time. Just don't give up yet. Granted, I have talked about moving to Canada as of late, but it won't solve the problem in the U.S. and that will just give it more room to spread.

Btw, I know a lot of people are discouraged with the outcome of the election (me included), and I am sure many of you question the intelligence of your fellow countryman. I for one would like to believe that the election was rigged and here is an interesting article about it:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm

Call me crazy, but I would rather believe that there was some shadyness going on instead of the majority of our population are idiots. If the latter is the case though, we are in big trouble.

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"If we look deep inside our soul, we will find a child trapped in his fears." - Lior Kalfo Wow Show

orbz

yeah, ok, WHATEVER. you sit in your room and cry as everything goes to shit and i'll actually take a little initiative.

Do I really need to drag up Margaret Mead?

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

And the people who oppose this "nwo" is hardly a small group of people. If you really feel that helpless and weak, I feel sorry for you. I hope you recognize that they train you to feel that way.

orbz

"As to fraud, etc. I don’t think it is a major issue, even if true. The election had about the significance of tossing a coin to pick a king. If the coin was slightly biased, that’s unfair, but not the main issue. The much more important point is that the opinions of the majority of the population were excluded from the political arena on major issues. People voted for the imagery concocted by the PR industry. Exit polls reveal that clearly. But to discover whether the imagery is accurate, we have to compare people’s attitudes and beliefs with the actual programs. There’s plenty of interesting and credible evidence on this, and when we investigate it, we discover that people were hopelessly misled. Voters for both candidates assumed, overwhelmingly, that the candidates held their views, which is demonstrably false. In fact, voters recognized that they could not vote on agenda/policies/programs/ideas—about 10% gave that as their reasons—but only on imagery. And in a society based crucially on deceit (what is advertising?), it is quite natural that the political managers and the PR industry will run elections the same way. To repeat, there is overwhelming evidence that the opinions of the majority of the population on major issues were simply off the agenda, either within the political parties or in mainstream discussion, with rare exceptions. That democratic deficit seems to me far more important than the possibility that the coin that was tossed was biased.

Bush won slightly more than 30% of the electorate, Kerry slightly under 30%. I doubt that fraud had much to do with it. That’s about what I personally predicted, if that matters; am collecting some symbolic bets from friends, and even wrote about it a bit, on Znet. It is meaningless. It tells us virtually nothing about the country, just as it would tell us nothing if there had been a slight shift in votes and Kerry had won with a meaningless slight plurality. The important issues are: the opinions of the majority of the population on major issues were off the agenda, people voted for one or another image conducted by the PR salesman, and the images have little to do with reality."

^ that'd be Noam Chomsky, btw

butrfly_god_s

I can agree with a lot of this article, but I still feel that the fraud in the election is a little bit more of a problem than he says. Yes, the bigger problem is that the *real* issues in our country were ignored in this election. This is seriously where advertising came into play. If, and I stress if, Bush fairly won this election it is only because they bombarded the country with this gay-rights bullshit. It is unerving that people will concentrate on this issue that will not hurt them in anyway, you won't pay any higher taxes and they are not going to try to convert your kids to being gay. Yet, we have lost millions of jobs, our defecit has reached an all time high, more people are without healthcare, and our education system is a joke compared to many other countries. However, how can we begin to solve these problems if the system in place for the people to use to make changes doesn't work?

pointy_sticks

The best way to keep people's minds off the real problems is to manipulate them with issues they care deeply about. People who are constantly angry or frightened haven't got any energy left over to worry about the economy.

HuMbLeBuMbLe

alright no matter where u live nothing is gonna be peachy. if u don't like something try and fix it. it could be through protesting or actually becoming part of the government.

so to all the people who love to bitch and do nothing:

don't let the door hit u on the ass!

evangelos_gq

^^^ i tried that... well the joining the gov. part. and it didnt work... they are TWICE as brain washed in the government.... and i think that there is no hope at all for america... as far as revolting. or protesting... it wont do a thing. The Right is just too strong.

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Everybody wants to be happy.

Depressives don't. They want to be unhappy to confirm they're depressed. If they were happy they couldn't be depressed anymore. They'd have to go out into the world and live. Which can be depressing.
-Closer.

HuMbLeBuMbLe

well i have family over in Lathia and over there it is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much worse than america...their government doesn't care about them..there r bomb shells still on the streets from when the russians left. I would never move away from America, because i know for a fact that the USA gives me a lot of freedoms...canada is great too, don't get me wrong, but it's too fucking cold!!!!! I go up there all the time for WEMF and I'll be up there for my first Hulla!

orbz

"as far as revolting. or protesting... it wont do a thing. The Right is just too strong."

the only reason they'd be able to ever achieve something of 1984 quality is by convincing every individual that they are weak, alone and helpless to do anything to make the world into what they want

unfortunately most people seem to buy into it

they're just people
and a LOT of them are stupid

HuMbLeBuMbLe

i would consider moving to canada, but it needs to stay above 32 degrees or i freeze!

orbz

to clarify: i meant that the right are just people, not that people are just people

i don't buy the notion that the average person is an idiot, and if you do you're an arrogant prick. so i wanted to clear up who i was talking about.

orbz

Draw your own conclusions

HuMbLeBuMbLe

I'm an elementry/special education major and under "No Child Left Behind Act" schools are required to give the Armed serivices every 12 grade student's GPA, SAT scores, home address/phone number..This is bullshit and most teachers are against it...Schools r given money in exchange...isn't this a great system?

orbz

gotta love the marketting-team names of all those laws they pass

skunkdiggity

I wanna go to Greenland. You never hear about it really-it seems almost mythical. It's like the Unicorn of countries.

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orbz

well its not a country, its iceland