For those of you for whom Apple’s Switch campaign was not enough, now there’s John’s Switch to Canada. It’s pretty flawless.
I’ll admit it. Every time I visit Vancouver, I wonder about it. Every time I hear George Bush (or Trent Lott) speak I think about it. Every time I think about John Ashcroft shredding the Bill of Rights, it dawns on me that someday I might not have much of a choice. I love the ideal of America, but the country I love is being eroded– nay, stolen out from under us– and there are times when my frustration reaches the point of despair.
All this reminds me of a favorite Pedro the Lion lyric, from the song “Of Up and Coming Monarchs” from the amazing EP Progress:
There once was a time
One could flee to the north
But canada’s not what she used to be
Boycott the war
Well she could not afford to
Thanks to the new American queen
Obscure, to be sure, and basically innacurate. According to Immigration Canada’s online test, I qualify to immigrate based on my status as a skilled (and moderately Francophone) worker. I would need to pay CDN$525 to apply and have $9,186 to support myself for 6 months upon arrival (that sounds a bit low), but these do not seem to be huge barriers.
So I’m not packing my bags, but as Pedro the Lion sings, “It’s good to have options.”
In the past, I’ve thought that I might one day want to emigrate from the US; since the beginning of Bush II’s reign, I’ve felt like I’m definitely going to need to emigrate, I’ve only to figure out when and to where.
Canada might be where to go, but it seems like getting farther away (something that Dennis Miller said many years ago comes to mind: “You can’t save everyone, folks. Just try not to be living next door to them when they go off.”) is desirable, as is moving someplace warmer—my two trips to Hawai’i have had an effect—and Canada is in the wrong direction.
New Zealand, maybe?