Americans Didn't Run to Canada After Bush Election Victory

[destruction]

Americans Didn't Run to Canada After Bush Election Victory

Official statistics reveal that in the six months after George Bush won a second term to the White House, the number of Americans who applied to live permanently in Canada did not, in fact, rise at all: It fell.

Canada, which is generally thought to be more liberal than the U.S., was seen as the place to which disgruntled left-wingers from the U.S. would run if President Bush remained in office.

And Reuters reports that "in the days after President Bush won a second term, the number of U.S. citizens visiting Canada's main immigration Web site shot up sixfold." Canada, which is looking to entice people to move there, was ecstatic, but mistakenly so.

Canadian Immigration Minister Joe Volpe said he'd be happy to accept immigrants from anywhere in the world, but was especially enthused when Internet traffic went up, at least for a while.

"I was absolutely elated to see the number of hits and then my staff said 'You know what? A hit on the Internet is after all just a hit'," he told Reuters.

"I guess I'm happy Republicans and Democrats have found a way to live together in peace and in harmony," he added.

In the six months leading up to the 2004 presidential election, there were 16,266 applications from those who wished to live in Canada, according to the Canadian processing center in Buffalo, N.Y., but that number fell to 14,666 in the six months post-election.

Toby Condliffe of the Canadian chapter of Democrats Abroad, cracked, "I can only assume the Americans who checked out the Web site subsequently checked out our winter temperatures and further took note that the National Hockey League was being locked out and had second thoughts."

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/8/5/121351.shtml