{"id":410,"date":"2004-11-06T16:35:13","date_gmt":"2004-11-06T20:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tradermike.net\/movethecrowd\/2004\/11\/americans_flock_to_canadas_immigration_web_site\/"},"modified":"2004-11-06T16:35:13","modified_gmt":"2004-11-06T20:35:13","slug":"americans_flock_to_canadas_immigration_web_site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2004\/11\/06\/americans_flock_to_canadas_immigration_web_site\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans Flock to Canada’s Immigration Web Site"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looks like I’m not the only one who’s been thinking about breaking the hell out<\/a>. But Canada is the wrong drection — fools need to head towards (around) the equator<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nOTTAWA (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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But please spare the sob stories.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

But right now it is too early to say whether the increased interest will result in more applications.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“We’ll only find out whether there has been an increase in applications in six months.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looks like I’m not the only one who’s been thinking about breaking the hell out. But Canada is the wrong drection — fools need to head towards (around) the equator. 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… Continue reading Americans Flock to Canada’s Immigration Web Site<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":418,"url":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2004\/11\/17\/boondocks_flood\/","url_meta":{"origin":410,"position":0},"title":"Boondocks Flood","date":"November 17, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Aaron McGruder's been on a roll of late with the Boondocks comic strip. In case you missed any of them, here are some of my favorites from the last couple of weeks: Funny that this one was actually done before the election (October 24th) and before people actually flooded Canada's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Current Events"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":409,"url":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2004\/11\/05\/escapeartistcom\/","url_meta":{"origin":410,"position":1},"title":"EscapeArtist.com","date":"November 5, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"A friend of mine just sent me a link to EscapeArtist.com (great name) because we were talking about packing up and leaving the U.S. I've toyed with that idea for several years but after the election and how divided the country is, it seems like as good a time as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Current Events"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":249,"url":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2003\/11\/24\/are_you_part_of_the_technology_elite\/","url_meta":{"origin":410,"position":2},"title":"Are You Part of the Technology Elite?","date":"November 24, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"A study released Sunday found that 31% of Americans are 'highly tech-savvy' people for whom the Internet, cell phones and handheld organizers are more indispensable than TVs and old-fashioned wired phones. That's a nice change from the perception that most Americans can't even program a simple VCR. It's always bugged\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":367,"url":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2004\/07\/28\/barack_obama_a_star_is_born\/","url_meta":{"origin":410,"position":3},"title":"Barack Obama: A Star is Born","date":"July 28, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I missed Obama's speech live but was moved to find a link to it after reading all the raves about it on the convention bloggers' sites. (Here's the link to video of Obama's keynote address[Real] and links to Windows Media: Lo | Hi | Audio) The consensus seems to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Current Events"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":378,"url":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2004\/08\/19\/michael_moore_to_publish_soldiers_letters\/","url_meta":{"origin":410,"position":4},"title":"Michael Moore to Publish Soldiers’ Letters","date":"August 19, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"This should be an interesting book: \"Fahrenheit 9\/11\" director Michael Moore has signed a deal with Simon & Schuster to publish a collection of letters sent to him by U.S. troops stationed in Iraq. Slated to hit shelves in November, the tome's title will be \"Will They Ever Trust Us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Current Events"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":235,"url":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2003\/10\/29\/reggae_the_next_big_ting\/","url_meta":{"origin":410,"position":5},"title":"Reggae, the Next Big Ting?","date":"October 29, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Madison is predicting that reggae (dancehall) is on the rise. I'd love to see it happen but I feel a sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu. Didn't we go through this about 10-15 years ago (damn I'm getting old) when Shabba Ranks, Buju Banton, Supercat, Cutty Ranks, KRS-ONE, etc. were doing their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","img":{"alt_text":"Shop at Amazon.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rcm-images.amazon.com\/images\/G\/01\/rcm\/468x240.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}