In comments here, ALPF asked:
What's your take on this one...Kyle speculated:
If so many Americans (six times the normal amount) were interested in moving here after the election, why do think so few have actually taken the big step?
[Story here.]
I can't believe it's because they are afraid of the cold! It must be because they realized it's just not as easy as they expected it to be.
That's exactly it. Except for those fresh out of school, you tend to stick down roots where you live. It's hard enough to move to another city in a different state/province, let alone another country.And also said:
That's something the wackos that call Laura a coward don't seem to understand. To actually pack up and move to Canada is an act of bravery, not cowardice.Besides thanking Kyle and ALPF for their vote of confidence in me and Allan, I'll throw in my two cents.
I definitely agree that most people are put off by how much work is required to emigrate, and by how much it costs. Most Americans mistakenly believe - as we did, once upon a time - that they can move to Toronto or Vancouver the same way they can move to San Francisco or New York. When they find out what's involved, few are motivated enough to go through the process.
In my opinion, if you were going to be happy enough with the US had John Kerry been elected, your motivation is probably insufficient to leave the country. If it was only about the 2004 election, for the most part, you'll ride out the storm. As I am forever reminding nasty commenters, we were leaving no matter who was elected in 2004. Our problems with the US are greater than George Bush and the Republicans.
Also, those fresh out of school, as Kyle notes, might have lives flexible enough to uproot and begin anew, but most wouldn't be eligible. They wouldn't have the required work experience, stable life history, or money in the bank.
That's my take.
To answer some questions about Buster, read this, and if you really love dog stories, this goes even further back. Photos of our pups are here, photos of our first family are here.
43 comments:
And I just noticed Rob left the same link here.
This Danish thing is too weird, I'll have to check it out further and blog about it tomorrow. I do like the Danish pastries and beer thing, though.
Off topic, but hey if the ALPF can do it...
http://www.petitiononline.com/Emery/petition.html
All Canadians, help stop the US's intrustion on the Canadian justice system and our drug policies.
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Thank you, Anonymous Peter. I'll definitely post this tomorrow.
I always know when the anon is you. I recognize your handwriting.
I do like the Danish pastries and beer thing, though.
That's one of the things that raised the ire of those Danes I was talking to, some other Canadian made a crack about danishes....I hear they're not Danish. I learn something new everyday.
Sorry about the duplicate link posting. I should have known ALPF was on the case.
I knew danish weren't really Danish, but I didn't know they were sensitive about it. Oh those crazy Danes.
Danish readers do not spam me. I have never met a Danish person in my life but I am sure they are quite sane.
Rob, duplicate postings are always cool.
I have never met a Danish person in my life but I am sure they are quite sane.
You might be surprised to hear, Denmark is a member of the "Coalition of the Willing". One of the Danes I was talking to seemed to take some pride in that. To be honest, I got the impression he may have actually been Danish-American. He used some slang terms that I wouldn't have expected from a European.
The squabble over the island is over nothing, aside from the remote possibility it might someday allow for oil. It also plays into the (old) Canadian debate about the need to bolster our commitment to the Arctic. icebreakers, Nuclear subs, and all.
Danishes may not be from Denmark, but Lego is, so they deserve all the credit in the world. As opposed to those lousy Swedes:
Lego: Sells fun plastic doodads, fully interchangeable and easy to break apart, that you can use to build models of everything in your house, complete with funky widgets.
Ikea: Doodads for use everywhere in your house, unfortunately held together with non-interchangable plastic widgets that easily break.
Lego: By appealing to your inner child, it generates fun for all ages!
Ikea: By making the assembly instructions incomprehensible, it reduces prople of all ages to the level of frustrated children.
Lego: Rhymes with "eggo"
Ikea: Rhymes with "trachea"
and so on.
I like this, above, but I must say I love Ikea. Looove.
I also love Lego. But for home furnishings, I'll go with Ikea.
Once you've stepped, barefoot, on one of those infernal little Lego blocks carelessly left lying about by some distracted child, you will see Denmark in a whole new light.
Now if only someone built furniture out of lego... :D
Peter
Once you've stepped, barefoot, on one of those infernal little Lego blocks carelessly left lying about by some distracted child, you will see Denmark in a whole new light.
I do remember this from my days as a nanny. Transformer Superheroes are also hell on the feet.
"I like this, above, but I must say I love Ikea. Looove."
There are four or five Ikeas within a short drive of Port Credit, so you're well set there.
90% of our furniture is Ikea... Just too convenient to pass up.
The new Ikea catalog just arrived yesterday......
We've been going to Ikea almost daily for the past few weeks, looking at stuff we want to buy once we've moved in.
Legos were my favourite toy growing up. I kinda wish I kept some, I still wouldn't mind playing with them now.
I've stayed put partly out of fear of failure and partly out of a need to stay close to family members in need. Canada's immigration approval system doesn't seem very daunting to me. It's downright easy compared to a lot of countries I've investigated. But everyone's reasons for staying put are different. I have a good friend who moved to France back in the Reagan/Bush I era. She spent a while there and in Greece and then began worrying about her parents and missing her friends, so she moved back.
We have had friends on and off inquire about what is involved in emigrating to Canada. When I tell them they seem put off and in schock, thinking that for the simple fact they are US citizens they should be pushed to the front of the line.
In a way I am sad more people didn't follow through on their threats and in another I am glad that Canada won't soon become filled with non-authentic people who are really looking for change and adventure.
DeanG's comment reminds me not to make judgements or assumptions about anyone else's choices.
On the other hand, if it's fear of failure, Dean, and you really want to go, I hope you'll push through it.
that for the simple fact they are US citizens they should be pushed to the front of the line.
I hear this all the time. I have acquaintances who kept telling me this would happen, that Canada would "rubber stamp" us. Why should they?
Ah, we can always use good people, and whatever encourages that, I'm in favour of. Still, changing countries shouldn't be something that anyone does lightly.
But I suspect that we come off well compared to what folks have to do to get into the USA, eh?
But I suspect that we come off well compared to what folks have to do to get into the USA, eh?
Canada's requirements are objective and straightforward. That puts it miles above the US's in the first place.
There are four or five Ikeas within a short drive of Port Credit, so you're well set there.
[drool]
I've driven by two of them. I've already looked at the map to see where Ikea and Home Depot are. It will be too tempting to spend our entire savings fixing up the house.
[Redsock, if you're reading this, that was a joke. Really. No, really, it was.]
I see Kyle & Co have the Ikea bug, too.
Legos were my favourite toy growing up. I kinda wish I kept some, I still wouldn't mind playing with them now.
I loved when my nieces and nephews were Lego age. Lego was also the best part of being a nanny.
Not enough to have kids, mind you...
I hear this all the time. I have acquaintances who kept telling me this would happen, that Canada would "rubber stamp" us. Why should they?
They should come up anyway. What are we going to do, deport them?
You mean come up w/out going through immigration? Then you can't legally work or get health care.
You can play our immigration system for years and as long as you have a hearing or appeal in the works, you can work and get health care. Our deportation procedure, as far as I can tell, consists of telling you to leave. Beyond that, they pretty much leave you alone. My father lived in Canada illegally for most of his life and didn't even know it. It was only when he applied for a passport in his 50s that he found out he had no legal status.
The expectation that people from the US would be pushed to the front of the immgration line is funny. Once when I was filling out paperwork to get a passport to go to Canada, among other places, my (wealthy Texas Republican) father got indignant that any country would require Americans to have a passport to get into their country. He also expected people everywhere to speak English while not making an effort himself to learn other languages. Typical of Americans, I hear.
Transformers, more than meets the eye...
Thanks, L-girl. You got that theme stuck in my head. Of course, that's the only line I can remember from the song. Grr.
Transformers, more than meets the eye...
...Transformers, robots in disguise...
Once when I was filling out paperwork to get a passport to go to Canada, among other places, my (wealthy Texas Republican) father got indignant that any country would require Americans to have a passport to get into their country.
Canada doesn't require Americans to carry a passport to enter the country. We would like you all to leave your guns at home, though. You'd be amazed how many American visitors don't realize that.
He also expected people everywhere to speak English while not making an effort himself to learn other languages. Typical of Americans, I hear.
I've encountered a few ugly Americans, but not many. Fortunately, most I've met are highly-educated science types. They tend to be well-travelled and take a certain amount of pride in knowing a few local customs in the places they visit.
You can play our immigration system for years and as long as you have a hearing or appeal in the works, you can work and get health care.
But you can't get a hearing if you're not already in the system. I've been in touch with Americans living in Canada who thought they could move, live there and then apply. You have to be very rich to make it work.
Oops, meant to add this:
My father lived in Canada illegally for most of his life and didn't even know it. It was only when he applied for a passport in his 50s that he found out he had no legal status.
It may have changed a lot since then. The whole system is different now, as I understand it.
Canada doesn't require Americans to carry a passport to enter the country.
Yes it does, if you fly. Post 9/11, rules have changed. We had huge hassles when we forgot our passports, and were allowed it at the border guard's discretion, after going through quite a grilling.
If you drive, a driver's license will do, but if you fly, you need a passport.
He also expected people everywhere to speak English while not making an effort himself to learn other languages.
God I hate that. I will never forget listening to an American scream - scream - in bad Spanish at a ticket agent in the train station in Rome. He must have heard that Italian is similar to Spanish. He was infuriated that the ticket seller didn't understand, so he just kept turning up the volume. Because, as you know, if you don't understand a language, it helps if it's spoken at high volumes.
Nio:
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Docks/9187/lyrics.html#transformers
http://www.stlyrics.com/t/thetransformers.htm
I haven't listened, I can't bear it... :)
I've encountered a few ugly Americans, but not many.
Moi aussi. Most individual Americans get a bad rap. And ugly Canadians aren't much fun either. But I do notice in some Americans abroad a trait that I don't see elsewhere in the English Speaking world, and that is a strange inability to grasp that there *are* such things as other countries. It's as if they're carrying a little America around in their head, and everything is shot through that filter. As if...they don't understand that they are in fact the foreigner. I'm not sure how better to describe it, but it's there, and it's sometimes quite subtle. I'll say this for bilingualism: no one in English Canada thinks that everyone in the world does or should speak English.
Ugly Canadians, on the other hand, just don't get that no one else in the world particularly cares about how Canada compares to the states, or indeed, about Canada much at all. This is not a bad thing, on the whole. Those Molson Canadian commercials are funny to us because they're very rah-rah at the same time as being slightly self mocking; but they are an inside joke and folks elsewhere don't care much. Our humour is like Catholic humour: we kid ourselves and our absurdities while somehow still taking them very seriously indeed. It is wonderful and silly and somehow appropriate that Tim Horton's is a national icon, so much so that we brag about it. But in a place without winter, how can anyone explain the appeal of hot coffee and donuts in the depths of January?
Hmmm.
Canadian culture: are you in on the joke?
To be fair, I think we've simply following US practice on the post 9/11 passports thing. Not that our gesture was able to slow down the US march towards Fortress America in the slightest...and now we have no choice but to follow.
To be fair, I think we've simply following US practice on the post 9/11 passports thing.
Regardless of the whys and wherefores, Americans do need passports to enter Canada. Apparently this will soon be the case on the highways too.
I don't think it's the slightest bit unreasonable. I'm just saying it exists.
As if...they don't understand that they are in fact the foreigner.
My grandparents - Jewish folks from Brooklyn - traveled the world before world travel was easy or commonplace. My grandmother, the matriarch, had the travel bug, which she passed on to my mother and to me. She went everywhere she possibly could, to countries people thought she was crazy to want to see.
Yet she told a joke, an old tired joke everyone was tired of hearing, about an encounter she had with a man in Japan. A Japanese man. The punchline, at which everyone was supposed to fall out, was "...but to him, we're the foreigners!!!" The idea that she could be a foreigner to someone was insanely funny. This from a Jew from Brooklyn, whose parents were born in Russia.
My grandmother, the ugly American. :)
"As if...they don't understand that they are in fact the foreigner."
That's not unique to Americans, though. Back in the 50s, an episode of the Goon Show had this exchange:
Count Moriarty: Bonjour, monsieur!
Ned: Good morning!
M: Ah, monsieur is a foreigner.
N: I beg your pardon! I'm British!
M: Yes, but this is Madrid.
N: A natural mistake. There are so many foreigners here, you mistook me for one!
I was aware when I travelled that passports weren't necessary for US citizens to get into Canada. I insisted on getting one anyway, and presenting it, because I think it's wrong that some people are scrutinized and others aren't. This is partly because the border discrimination seems so racist here in Texas, with light-skinned Mexicans and Central and South Americans allowed into the US much more easily and frequently than dark-skinned, regardless of documentation. And, though this was pre-9/11, one Ontarian airport official did ask to see my passport when I disembarked.
As someone who chose to stay in the US after seriously looking into emigration to Canada, our decision had nothing to do with how much it costs. Laura, I know you know this from private email, but I wanted to say it publicly too. For all its faults and scary governmental mindset, the US has much better support for children with special needs. That's our bottom line right now. We have other reasons for staying in the US, but that's a huge factor.
Oh I think some people don't have any idea how hard can this moving process be. It not only requires all of the points the process take. But it demands the strength, love, hope. For some of us is even harder than others. This makes you see how deeply committed one can be to the other one when making this decision. Leave a life behind and start a new life in other country. One thing is that this whole process has made me truthfully believe in love. I do admire successful persons like you Laura that make this life changing experiences and decide to start a new life in a wonderful country. You will be again there too.
Gito
For all its faults and scary governmental mindset, the US has much better support for children with special needs.
Hi Tamar! Nice to know you're reading.
From writing about children with special needs and their parents for so many years, I can say that what's available in the US varies hugely according to one's tax bracket and where one lives. Services can be bountiful or almost non-existent, depending. So for some, Canada could be an improvement in services, for others, a decrease.
Gito, thank you for saying that, and for all your support thus far. You'll be there, too.
You're right about love, and commitment. We've seen it, too.
He also expected people everywhere to speak English while not making an effort himself to learn other languages.
I think this may be common in the English-speaking world. My mother's parents were British immigrants who lived and worked in Montreal most of their lives and never deigned to learn a dozen words of French. They just assumed that they would be served by businesses and governments in English, and addressed in it in conversations with their neighbours; and that generally seemed to be the case... I saw it with my own eyes as a kid. They weren't arrogant about it; it was just how they believed things should be, and for them it was. It's not so hard for me to understand the feelings of a lot of people in Quebec who want to separate or rejig Confederation.
I'd also agree its more of an English-speaker rather than specifically American thing.
I have a great Aunt who has lived in Montreal all her life, and not a word of French. A lot of English speaking Canadians demand to be served in English in Quebec, and they do the "raise the volume" thing if they're not understood. However, all Canadians have at least a smattering of French, since its required learning in school. I can speak French better than most, but I wouldn't call myself fluent.
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