Travel to Canada

If you can't make the move yet, at least travel there and check it out

Fewer tourists visiting Canada

OTTAWA (CP) - Travel to Canada fell to its lowest level in nearly a year in June, mainly because fewer Americans were making same-day car trips north of the border, Statistics Canada reports.

A slight drop in the number of American visitors more than offset a gain in travel from overseas countries.

A total of 3.1 million people visited Canada in June, down 0.1 per cent from May.

Just over 2.7 million Americans visited, down 0.4 per cent from a month earlier. There were 398,000 overseas visitors, up 1.6 per cent.

Liberals continue to lead in Canada

Canada’s Liberals Are Eight Points Ahead

The governing Liberal party remains the most popular federal political organization in Canada, according to a poll by The Strategic Counsel released by CTV and the Globe and Mail.

I don't think Canadian conservatives are as bad as U.S. Republicans, but this is still good news.

Marry an American

We've had reports that "Marry an American" is a satirical website. The link will be gone on the right, but please keep sending your suggestions!

Prosperity in Alberta, Canada

Canada's Oil Boom Prompts Donut Shops to Use iPods to Fill Jobs

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The jobless rate in Alberta, Canada's biggest oil-producing province, is so low that donut shops are offering iPods and university scholarships to attract workers.

Caroline Barham, who owns six Tim Hortons donut franchises, is providing free transportation to her store in Canmore, a one- hour drive from her base in Calgary, Canada's oil capital. Applicants also have a chance to win a C$160 ($132) iPod Shuffle music player, and can apply for as much as C$1,500 in college scholarships.

``We're in competition with everyone for workers,'' said Barham, 50, as she tied yellow balloons to chairs in a restaurant offering walk-in interviews in Calgary. ``We're going to have to keep thinking outside of the box.''

Record oil prices have pushed Alberta's unemployment rate to 3.5 percent in May, the lowest in a quarter century and half the Canadian average. The decline has left companies scrambling to find waitresses, welders, engineers and accountants.

Americans are jumping at the chance

Tim Hortons, a unit of Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's International Inc., has run radio commercials that invite Albertans to walk in for interviews, the first time the 41-year- old company has targeted a hiring campaign to a specific region. Barham collected five new applications and did two interviews on Aug. 10, and was prepared to hire at least one applicant immediately.

Renee Nelson, 34, who moved to Canada from the U.S. in 2003 and holds a business degree from Marymount University, got an on- the-spot interview when she showed up.

``They said I was way overqualified, but I'm tired of working in offices,'' Nelson said. ``It may not pay well, but I want to be happy.''

Rising energy prices are fueling demand for workers in Alberta's oil sands, where tar-like crude is extracted from sand in the northern part of the province. Oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Imperial Oil unit and Suncor Energy Inc., expect to spend as much as C$45 billion during the next five years to boost production from Alberta's deposits, whose reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia's.

Skilled workers are also needed

Anthony Franceschini, chief executive officer of Stantec Inc., an engineering and design firm in Edmonton, can't fill all of the vacant jobs at his company.

``The biggest challenge is still getting qualified people,'' Franceschini, 54, said. ``We work in 15 states and five provinces in Canada and Alberta right now is the best of all of those areas.''

Of the 300 job vacancies at Stantec, 25 percent are in Alberta, Franceschini said. The company employs about 4,500 people and needs engineers, architects and urban planners, he said. Stantec has boosted wages between 5 percent and 7 percent this year, compared with about 3 percent before the boom.

Average weekly earnings in Alberta rose 5.6 percent in May, compared with 2.9 percent nationally.

Calgary resident Ian Edgar knows how easy it is to find work. Returning from vacation last month, the 38-year-old Edgar sent his resume to SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., a Montreal-based engineering company. Within two days, he had a job designing electrical systems for an oil project.

Help Save Canada

Poll: Westerners considering separation

CALGARY (CP) - More than one-third of western Canadians surveyed this summer thought it was time to consider separation from Canada, a poll suggests.

In the survey, 35.6 per cent of respondents from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia agreed with the statement: Western Canadians should begin to explore the idea of forming their own country.

At least they aren't trying to join the U.S. police state but it seems they could use a few more progressives out west to help them remember what it means to be Canadian

Canadians offer to "Marry an American"

I think this is serious and it was mentioned in an earlier post, Canadians volunteer to marry progressives Americans to help them immigrate:

The idea behind Marry An American is simple: You have the power to rescue a progressive American from four more years of George W. Bush, should he be re-elected.

Americans, sick of the political climate of their homeland, have long sought refuge within Canadian borders. And let's face it, when compared to the United States, Canada is a liberal utopia & we have universal healthcare (in two languages!), gay marriage, free marijuana for everyone, and we don't like guns.

Already, our American counterparts are fleeing the U.S. in droves and buying up land along our borders. We envision a movement where everyone wins: Freedom of expression and a politically convenient marriage with love and igloos for all.

Canadian singles, tired of the dating scene, are willing to act for love or just plain pity. Let's drop our borders/inhibitions/commitment issues, set a date, pick out our china patterns and wed a sexy American liberal.

I'm adding a link on the right.

Students, go to college in Canada

A few years old but good to know

College costs push Americans to Canada

Friday, October 4, 2002 Posted: 12:53 PM EDT (1653 GMT)

(AP) -- Attracted by relatively low tuition costs, high academic standards and campuses set in urban centers and spectacular countryside, a small but fast-growing number of American students are choosing to spend their college days in a foreign country -- Canada.

The Canadian Embassy in Washington estimates that enrollment at major Canadian schools by U.S. citizens has risen by at least 86 percent over the past three years, to about 5,000 students.

"I absolutely love it here," said Amorette Howland, a senior at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, a community of 3,800 people about an hour's drive from the provincial capital of Halifax.

A 13-hour journey from home in Enfield, Connecticut, Howland was attracted by the small-town feel of Wolfville -- and when she learned that tuition included a new IBM laptop computer.

Her parents were more impressed by Acadia's academic standards; a minimum combined math and verbal SAT score of 1,100 is required for American students seeking admission. (There is no equivalent college entrance exam for Canadian high school students, who are judged for admissions based on grade point averages.)

Montreal's McGill University has lured nearly 1,600 Americans north of the border, including sophomore Patrick Cournoyer, who picked it over the University of Vermont and Cornell University.

McGill's international student tuition fee is $7,000 per year in U.S. dollars. With room and board, McGill officials estimate a student from the states can attend school in Montreal for a total of $12,000 annually.

"Financially, it wasn't anything to even think about," Cournoyer said. "It's so exorbitant the amount of money you pay to go to an American school."

Click here to continue reading this great article on how Canadian schools are recruiting Americans, affordability, academic integrity, and the Canadian experience

New Link, CanadianAlternative.com

I've added a link on the right to CanadianAlternative.com

It seems to have a great collection of information about immigration, moving, and finding jobs

Ranked by the United Nations as the best country in the world to live for eight consecutive years, Canada deserves serious consideration as a place to settle down, raise a family, pursue a career or start a business.

It also has a top ten list called The Case for Canada (each point is explained on the website)
-Medicare
-Foreign Policy
-Environmental Policy
-Gay Rights
-Drug Policy
-Reproductive Rights
-Gun Control
-Cultural Diversity
-NO Capital Punishment
-NO Federal Deficit

Americans not accepting Canada's welcome

There hasn't been the boom that was anticipated and immigration has actually declined. I wonder if the lack of an organized campaign didn't contribute to this. Americans went to the websites but didn't have all the information they needed to figure out how to move.

Americans didn't flock to Canada after Bush win

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadians can put away those extra welcome mats -- it seems Americans unhappy about the result of last November's presidential election have decided to stay at home after all.

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, prompting speculation that unhappy Democrats would flock north.

But official statistics show the number of Americans actually applying to live permanently in Canada fell in the six months after the election.

On the face of it this is not good news -- Canada is one of the few major nations seeking to attract immigrants -- but Immigration Minister Joe Volpe was philosophical.

"We'll take talent from wherever it is resident in the world. 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 on Thursday.

Last year, Canada, which has a population of about 32 million, accepted 235,808 immigrants from all over the world.

Heard of the Free State Project?

our goal isnt exactly the same here but it is something to look at. The Libertarians started a "free state project" where lots of Libertarians would select one state and move there so they can make it into a Libertarian haven without law or government

Are you frustrated at the loss of freedom and responsibility in America, while the growth of government and taxes continues unabated? Do you want to live in strong communities where your rights are respected, and people exercise responsibility for themselves and in their dealings with each other?

If you answered "yes" to those questions, then the Free State Project has a solution for you.

What the Free State Project is... The Free State Project is an effort to recruit 20,000 liberty-loving people to move to New Hampshire. We are looking for neighborly, productive, tolerant folks from all walks of life, of all ages, creeds, and colors who agree to the political philosophy expressed in our Statement of Intent, that government exists at most to protect people's rights, and should neither provide for people nor punish them for activities that interfere with no one else.

The difference is that Canada is a good destinatiion for progressives because Canada already is progressive. We're not trying to change it, just be somewhere better and hopefully make it stronger

Canada offers refuge to distraught Democrats

There is a great story from the U.K. about Canada welcoming Americans. The formatting and links don't copy well so here is an exerpt:

Those US citizens who are as we speak packing their bags in a state of near panic following the re-election of George W Bush in the certain knowledge that waves of gun-toting, bible-waving, gay-bashing rednecks will shortly be coming to pop a cap in their pinko, Kerry-loving liberal asses should know that help is at hand - in the form of Canada.

Yup, single Canadians are signing up in their tens to Marry an American, (motto: "No good American will be left behind"), an initiative designed to give marital sanctuary to Democrats for whom the US of A has become just too, well, Republican.

....Americans, sick of the political climate of their homeland, have long sought refuge within Canadian borders. And let's face it, when compared to the United States, Canada is a liberal utopia & we have universal healthcare (in two languages!), gay marriage, free marijuana for everyone, and we don't like guns.

Already, our American counterparts are fleeing the U.S. in droves and buying up land along our borders. We envision a movement where everyone wins: Freedom of expression and a politically convenient marriage with love and igloos for all.

Canadian singles, tired of the dating scene, are willing to act for love or just plain pity. Let's drop our borders/inhibitions/commitment issues, set a date, pick out our china patterns and wed a sexy American liberal.

The attitude is a little over the top (igloos for all? why not start calling your natives eaters of raw fish again?) but the message is warm hearted, Canadians welcome progressive Americans.

Waiting to escape

Unhappy Democrats Must Wait to Get Into Canada
by David Ljunggren

OTTAWA - Disgruntled Democrats seeking a safe Canadian haven after President Bush won Tuesday's election should not pack their bags just yet.

Canadian officials made clear on Wednesday that any U.S. citizens so fed up with Bush that they want to make a fresh start up north would have to stand in line like any other would-be immigrants -- a wait that can take up to a year.

....There are anywhere from 600,000 to a million Americans living in Canada, which leans more to the left than the United States and has traditionally favored the Democrats over the Republicans.

....Americans seeking to immigrate can apply to become permanent citizens of Canada, a process that often takes a year. Becoming a full citizen takes a further three years.

The other main way to move north on a long-term basis is to find a job, which in all cases requires a work permit. This takes from four to six months to come through.

Statistics show the number of U.S. workers entering Canada dropped to 15,789 in 2002 from 21,627 in 2000. In 1981 some 10,030 Americans gained permanent residency, compared to 5,541 in 2003.

Immigration seems to have slowed but since western countries rely on immigration to keep up the work force this looks like a good opening after all

Read the whole thing here