Lean to left, move to the north, eh?
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jrjo
Gone Fishin
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 Posted: 11/14/04 - 21:59 Post subject: Lean to left, move to the north, eh?
| Quote: | Canada beckons to unhappy blue-staters
BY GENE JOHNSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEATTLE - Got the blue-state blues? Rudi Kischer feels your pain.
The Vancouver, British Columbia, immigration lawyer plans seminars in three U.S. cities -- Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles -- to tell Americans frustrated with President Bush's re-election that the grass is greener north of the border. And that's not just an allusion to Canada's lenient marijuana laws.
"We started last year getting a lot of calls from Americans dissatisfied with the way the country is going," Kischer said. "Then after the election, it's been crazy up here. The Canadian immigration Web site had 115,000 hits the day after the election -- from the U.S. alone. We usually only get 20,000 hits."
There was so much interest that a Vancouver-based Internet company, Communicopia, set up a new Web site this month -- www.canadianalternative.com -- to suggest Canada as a viable option for its American clients, including anyone concerned about constitutional bans on gay marriage passed in 11 states this month.
"We invite you to get to know Canada," the site says. "Explore the richness and diversity of our regions. And find out why Canada is the perfect alternative for conscientious, forward-thinking Americans."
Canada suddenly has utopian appeal for many left-leaning Americans. Its universal health care, gay rights, abortion rights, gun-control laws, drug laws, opposition to the Iraq war, ban on capital punishment and ethnic diversity mirror many values of the American left. Immigrants, including an estimated 1 million Americans, make up nearly 20 percent of Canada's population. The United Nations named Toronto the world's most multicultural city.
On the other hand, it's cold. The baseball's not very good -- so long, Expos. And the taxes are higher, eh?
But, as one American who has his bags nearly packed likes to say, at least the taxes go toward good causes.
"I just like their way of life a lot better, and with everything the Bush administration has done -- for the American people to give him their seal of approval, it's basically the last straw," says Ralph Appoldt, a resident of Portland, in the barely blue state of Oregon."Canada's basic population is much more intelligent, polite and civilized."
Appoldt, 50, a sales manager, and his wife, a nurse, figure that selling their house and getting their immigration approved could take more than a year. But they're moving, they insist. They've already hired Kischer to help them.
Jason Mogus, Communicopia's chief executive, said that while his company wanted to help interested Americans, moving to Canada should be plan B.
"We strongly encourage Americans to stay and build a culture in line with their values," Mogus said. "In other words, stay and fight." |
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monk25
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Posted: 11/14/04 - 22:09 Post subject:
And another perspective:
Fred Gion: A French cowboy? Oui! I dream of life in Red State America
| Quote: |
01:00 AM CST on Sunday, November 14, 2004
By FRED GION
Since the re-election of President Bush, I've been reading on American blogs and newspaper Web sites that lots of you, particularly in the Blue States, are talking about leaving your country for more culturally hospitable nations, like Canada, or even my native France.
Well, I can be of assistance. I can even help one of you would-be expatriates relocate here to Paris. My apartment is on the market, because I don't like it here anymore! I want to immigrate to Red State America.
I mean it. I've just filled an entry form for the annual diversity visa lottery administered by the U.S. government. I've done it for the fifth time, and now the odds are on my side.
I'm not in a rush. I'm not running from anything. I've got a comfortable life here. It's just that someday, I want to marry and have a family, and I don't want to raise my kids in France, or in Europe. The hope of the future, as I see it, is in America.
See, I want my green card because I need smiles, not the constant pouting we live with in France. I want to live where people are happy with their lives and confident about what's to come. I want to live among people like those I saw at the Republican convention, which I stayed up late to watch on CNN International. Those folks looked like they were fun to be with. They looked optimistic, pleased to be there, none more than that successful European immigrant, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I have a strong faith, but I'm not exactly what you'd call religious. What scares me about French society today, though, are the consequences of total faithlessness. The French are sarcastic, cynical, greedy and miserable. Is this despair the price of throwing away our religious traditions?
My family and I will be safer in America. Aside from Tony Blair, I don't think European leaders really understand the stakes in this war on Islamic terrorism. President Bush does. I deeply respected Sen. John Kerry, but I am reassured by Mr. Bush's re-election.
I can't take anymore the arguments with my countrymen every time I say I support Mr. Bush. I'm sick of the smug, condescending responses I get, as if it were impossible to consider that maybe, just maybe, Mr. Bush is right. France is paralyzed by what we call la pensιe unique this idea that there is only one way to think about issues. It's killing all forms of discussion.
A huge majority of the French people doesn't want to know what Mr. Bush's program really is about. They just want to insult him by calling him a cowboy. But a cowboy is what I want to be! (Well, maybe only on weekends.) That's why, to be perfectly honest, I want to settle down in Texas.
Yes, Texas, which strikes the cool and the connected in Paris and New York as horribly unfashionable. Hey, sounds good to me! I want my kids to learn how to ride a horse instead of a moped. I want a simpler life, closer to nature and closer to my neighbors. The people whose attitude exhausts me look down their noses at Texas which is an argument this Lone Star wannabe finds persuasive.
In the end, I want to move to Red America because I know I'll belong. I don't know what happened to the French joie de vivre, and I'm tired of looking for it. But I cast my gaze across the Atlantic, and the values I see in the American character are a beacon calling me ... home.
So, if I'm lucky enough to win a visa in the lottery, I have everything planned. I won't fly to America too fast, too modern. I'll take the boat, like my great-great uncles did at the beginning of the 20th century. I want to see the Statue of Liberty from the deck, my beautiful French cousin welcoming me at the threshold of my new life. Then, I'll drive all the way from New York City to Texas, to slowly shake off the alien in me.
Yes, this is only a dream, but it's my American dream, and I hope it comes true. To Americans dreaming about leaving your country, good luck and bon voyage. Don't forget to leave the light on. I wasn't born in Texas, but I'm getting there as fast as I can.
Fred Gion, a documentary filmmaker, last wrote for The Dallas Morning News about his gratitude to America for liberating France from the Nazis. His e-mail address is fred.gion@laposte.net. |
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gretriever
Hipster Doofus
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Posted: 11/15/04 - 09:24 Post subject:
Why does the Gion piece want me wanna hear Kid Rock's song? 
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airehead
Oompa Loofah
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Posted: 11/16/04 - 13:21 Post subject:
Although there have been elections that I haven't agreed with and have joked about leaving, I couldn't think of a better place on earth than right here.
Why not stay and try to fix what's broken?
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MastrBrewr
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
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Posted: 11/16/04 - 13:23 Post subject:
| airehead wrote: | | Why not stay and try to fix what's broken? |
That's the beauty of our system, IMHO.
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sonnylax
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Posted: 11/16/04 - 14:00 Post subject:
I say, don't let the door hit you on the way out. Delta is ready when you are!
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Gogirlgo
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Posted: 11/16/04 - 14:05 Post subject:
| sonnylax wrote: | | I say, don't let the door hit you on the way out. Delta is ready when you are! |
This idea (not the expresser of the idea), Aire, is why it's hard to want to stay and fix what's broken. Only one group thinks anything is broken.
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suburbman
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Posted: 11/17/04 - 15:11 Post subject:
No generalizing going on in here....
From a vegetarian, communist supporter, PETA rights associate, average Canadian citizen.
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robp
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Posted: 11/17/04 - 16:26 Post subject:
| Gogirlgo wrote: |
This idea (not the expresser of the idea), Aire, is why it's hard to want to stay and fix what's broken. Only one group thinks anything is broken. |
And that group would be in the minority....
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airehead
Oompa Loofah
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Posted: 11/17/04 - 16:27 Post subject:
| Gogirlgo wrote: |
This idea (not the expresser of the idea), Aire, is why it's hard to want to stay and fix what's broken. Only one group thinks anything is broken. |
Not being sarcastic, but which group? I think there are a lot of people who feel disenfranchised from the right and don't agree with everything from the left and see that there is a lot to fix.
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RexRacer
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Posted: 11/17/04 - 16:33 Post subject:
Why should Blue-Staters flee when they could just as easily secede?
Hell, we control all of the major industry, entertainment, banking and finance, and technology companies.
I mean, sure, we'd lose on the commodity side: corn, wheat, beef. So we'd just make up the cost of importing that stuff by surcharges to Red-staters. First run movies would now cost $18.00 a ticket in Wyoming and computers just got a whole lot more expensive, too!!! 
Kidding folks, but it's a silly topic anyway 
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camelia bedelia
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Posted: 11/17/04 - 16:33 Post subject:
| airehead wrote: |
Not being sarcastic, but which group? I think there are a lot of people who feel disenfranchised from the right and don't agree with everything from the left and see that there is a lot to fix. |
I think she means the group that would just as happy to have all those that feel things need to change (from the left or right) shut up and go away.
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Gogirlgo
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Posted: 11/17/04 - 17:21 Post subject:
What I meant was, in terms of staying to fix what's broken, it's impossible to do when the opposition doesn't want to work with you. Remember our esteemed leader (who in future posts of mine shall be referred to as The Crumpet) said only that "we will work with those who share our goals." He didn't say squat about the need to work with those who dissent. There's no way to work with a "my way or the highway" attitude. And I believe Sonny's note simply confirms my point.
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sonnylax
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Posted: 11/17/04 - 17:34 Post subject:
We made it thru 8 years of Clinton. We can make it through ANYTHING!
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airehead
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Posted: 11/17/04 - 17:45 Post subject:
| Gogirlgo wrote: | | What I meant was, in terms of staying to fix what's broken, it's impossible to do when the opposition doesn't want to work with you. Remember our esteemed leader (who in future posts of mine shall be referred to as The Crumpet) said only that "we will work with those who share our goals." He didn't say squat about the need to work with those who dissent. There's no way to work with a "my way or the highway" attitude. And I believe Sonny's note simply confirms my point. |
That's the beauty. In four years, he'll be out.
And meanwhile, we can work at grassroots level to change what needs a changin'.
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