Posted on 07/26/2003 11:49:10 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
NEW YORK -- For all they share economically and culturally, Canada and the United States are increasingly at odds on basic social policies -- to the point that at least a few discontented Americans are planning to move north and try their neighbors' way of life.
A husband and wife in Minnesota, a college student in Georgia, a young executive in New York. Though each has distinct motives for packing up, they agree the United States is growing too conservative and believe Canada offers a more inclusive, less selfish society.
"For me, it's a no-brainer," said Mollie Ingebrand, a puppeteer from Minneapolis who plans to go to Vancouver with her lawyer husband and 2-year-old son.
"It's the most amazing opportunity I can imagine. To live in a society where there are different priorities in caring for your fellow citizens."
For decades, even while nurturing close ties with the United States, Canadians have often chosen a different path -- establishing universal health care, maintaining ties with Cuba, imposing tough gun control laws. Two current Canadian initiatives, to decriminalize marijuana and legalize same-sex marriage, have pleased many liberals in the United States and irked conservatives.
New York executive Daniel Hanley, 31, was arranging a move for himself and his partner, Tony, long before the Canadian announcement about same-sex marriage. But the timing delights him; he and Tony now hope to marry in front of their families after they emigrate to British Columbia.
"Canada has an opportunity to define itself as a leader," Hanley said. "In some ways, it's now closer to American ideals than America is."
Thomas Hodges, a computer systems major at Georgia State University, said his dismay with American politics started him thinking last year about going abroad. He recently wrote an article in a campus journal titled, "Why I Am Moving To Canada."
"I'm thinking about Toronto, though I hear it's cold up there," Hodges, a lifelong Southerner, said in a telephone interview.
Hodges, 21, complained about a "neo-conservative shift" in the United States and praised Canada's approach to health care and education.
"The U.S. educational system is unfair -- you have to live in certain areas to go to good schools," he said.
Rene Mercier, spokesman for Canada's immigration department, said any upsurge in U.S.-to-Canada immigration based on current political developments won't be detectable for a few years, because of the time required to process residency applications.
During the Vietnam War, U.S. emigration to Canada surged as thousands of young men, often accompanied by wives or girlfriends, moved to avoid the draft.
But every year since 1977, more Canadians have emigrated to the United States than vice versa -- the 2001 figures were 5,894 Americans moving north, 30,203 Canadians moving south.
Mollie Ingebrand, 34, said she has felt an affinity with Canada for many years, fueled partly by respect for its health care system. Her doubts about the United States go back even further, to a childhood spent with liberal parents in a relatively conservative part of Ohio.
"In school I was always told this is the best country on earth, and everyone else wants to be American, and that never really rang true to me," she said. "As I got older, it occurred to me there were other choices."
Ingebrand says some of her friends -- people who share her left-of-center views -- argue that she should stay at home to battle for changes here.
"I've been there and done that," she said. "I don't want to stay and fight anymore. I can have that bittersweet love for my country from somewhere else."
Sounds like a lot more Canadians with the "been there-done that" attitude.
Actually, my brother in law moved to Canada and gave up his U.S. citizenship over 20 years ago. I love him dearly, but I have to laugh at his socialist mindset. He's a professor of ethics who right now is working on some sort of health care pronouncement and was trying to explain to us that people who are in the lower socioeconomic levels automatically have poorer health due to the stress of their situations, and that once people whose lives are better understand how unfair this is and how lucky they are to be healthier, that they really shouldn't mind paying extra to help these people become better off. OOOOOKayeeeeeee..... I'm also amused by his declarations of what's wrong with the U.S., as he usually starts out with "well, I read in your newspaper that XXXX is a problem." As "educated" as he is, there's no way we can explain to him that that's precisely what the paper wants a person to think - them that doesn't know any better anyway.
They so seldom do.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Take off, eh!
Except for that freedom-of-speech stuff that Americans always talk about. As much as you hear endless blather about "censorship" in the USA, they actually have government censorship in Canada.
Mr. Hanley and his wife-with-a-penis are probably OK with this because the Canada censors think that race and "orientation" are equal, and punish anyone who says otherwise on Canadian TV or radio. That's why Dr. Laura was essentially banned in Canada for saying that homosexual practices are "deviant," and why Howard Stern was censured for making jokes about French men.
John Kerry looks French.
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