Автор: Ковбой (---.ed.shawcable.net)
Дата: 21-11-04 06:03
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/lifestyle/orl-canadamove111504nov15,0,224419.story?coll=orl-home-entlife
Canada, here we come
The re-election of President Bush has a few Americans thinking warmly about our neighbor, where the beer is cold and the politics are liberal.
Nov 15, 2004
Canada might seem like the Great Frozen Tundra to those of us who live below the Mason-Dixon Line. But to some Americans, Canada is starting to look warm and friendly.
After President George W. Bush won re-election, thousands of Americans flocked to their computers in a wave of post-election grief to check out Canada's immigration Web site. On a typical day, the site -- www.cic.gc.ca -- gets about 20,000 hits. The day after the election, more than 115,000 visitors checked out the site, and the majority were Americans. And in the days since, the Web site is getting far more hits than normal.
Not since the Vietnam War has there been so much interest in Canada from those of us down under.
And the Canadians, bless them, aren't exactly turning people away.
"Let's face it, we have a population of a little over 32 million, and we definitely need more permanent residents to come to Canada," says immigration department spokeswoman Maria Iadinardi. Canada wants to attract 220,000 to 245,000 new residents next year.
"If we could meet [the target] and go above it, the more the merrier," Iadinardi said.
But before you start stuffing your worldly possessions into the minivan and heading for the border, hold on. The Canadians may embrace Americans, but changing one's nationality isn't easy. Just getting permission to move to Canada could take six months to a year.
That doesn't deter people such as Patrick Rubero of Orlando.
Long before the TV networks called Ohio for Bush, Rubero, 41, had a sinking feeling that the president would be re-elected. So six months ago, he started searching the Internet for alternative places to live.
His first priority was to find a bustling economy. Unemployed for nearly a year, Rubero has struggled to find a job in retail management. And, as a gay man, he also wanted to find a place that's not hostile to gays.
Now he has narrowed his choices to Vancouver, British Columbia, or Mexico.
In six months, after he obtains the necessary paperwork and wraps up his financial obligations, Rubero will pack his bags and move.
"Priority No. 1 is to get settled," he says. "Priority No. 2 is to get a job."
Warm thoughts
From liberals to gays to greens, a bunch of Americans woke up depressed after Election Day. And Canada, where the beer is cold, the medicine is socialized and the politics are liberal, looks like a nice home away from home.
In Casselberry, Chuck Weirauch finds himself dreaming of the Great White North.
Overnight, the idea of multicolored money (blue $5 bills, purple $10 bills, red $50 bills), snowy winters and frostbitten fingers seemed welcoming and warm -- even to a Michigan native who has lived in Florida for 20 years.
Weirauch, 57, says he has grown tired of explaining American voters and their mind-set to his foreign friends. He is weary of discussing the "religious right" and the country's "moral values."
Just thinking about moving to Canada makes him feel better, even if his wife isn't tempted. He says he's about "50-50" on the idea. She rules it out.
Still, he can always retreat to his escapist dreams. "I used to go skiing in 15-below weather," he says. "I sail here. I could go back to snow-skiing up there."
Denmark? Mexico? No
Canada isn't the only place that looks inviting to distraught Democrats. Immediately after the election, Sandra Thorpe of St. Cloud began talking about immigrating to Denmark, where she has plenty of cousins.
For days, she weighed the pros and cons. On the negative side, Thorpe, 70, doesn't speak Danish. On the plus side? Most Danes speak English, thanks to years of English instruction in school. Ultimately, however, she concluded that she could never stand the Danish weather. Which of course, led her to wonder about moving to Mexico.
After a few days, however, Thorpe, a loyal Democrat who has worked in every presidential campaign since she began knocking on doors for Harry Truman, vowed to stick around and fight.
"I can't just walk out on that kind of mess," she says. "It wouldn't be prudent -- to quote George the First."
Turning red to blue
And although Canada may experience an influx of frustrated Democrats, beware, Florida. They may be coming here too.
In chat rooms and on Web logs throughout cyberspace, angry Democrats are talking about moving from blue states to battleground states, in hopes of turning those red states to blue.
That has inspired Californian Daniel Carr, 54, and his wife, Vickie, to think about moving to Florida.
"Before the election, my wife and I would periodically talk about moving to Canada if Bush was re-elected," says Carr. Sometimes they were joking; other times they weren't.
After the election, however, they decided they couldn't abandon their civic duty. "We are much more likely," says Carr, "to move from our cozy blue state to a red one that shows some promise of turning blue."
As for jobs, Carr, a librarian, and his wife, a high-school guidance counselor, aren't concerned. Besides, he says, "I love the tropics and Florida is about as tropical as you can get, continentally speaking."
GOP isn't worried
Republicans are amused by some Democrats' talk of fleeing from a Bush administration. But Lew Oliver, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, doubts most Democrats are serious.
And he isn't exactly trembling at the thought of Democrats moving here to turn Florida blue.
"In Florida, they'd need about 450,000 of them," Oliver says. "Yeah, that's amusing." Perhaps, he counters, such a Democratic migration would inspire Republicans to move to blue states and begin converting Democrats.
All this hot-headed talk of moving to Canada, however, has sparked chuckles from our brethren north of the border.
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin says Americans are welcome, though he wouldn't advise them to apply for "refugee status." Single Canadians have set up a Web site -- www.marryanamerican.ca -- offering help to single Americans who are, as one said, "less geographically fortunate."
And a columnist for the Toronto Sun offered advice for Canadian-bound Yanks.
"As Canadians, you'll have to learn to embrace and use all the products and culture of Americans," wrote Thane Burnett, "while bad-mouthing their way of life."
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