Steve_

No, it wasn't a major factor for me, although the low taxes in Alberta did appeal. When people ask me why I moved to Canada that is a long list of reasons, I would never permanently move somewhere else just because one thing annoyed me, it was a culmination of a long list of reasons. I agree with what a lot of oink said about the culture but it wasn't just that. As I recall Oink said he's a US citizen and studied in the US - I lived in the US a long time as well and I felt totally out of place in the UK although I grew up there.

I'm sort of inbetween being an American and a Brit I think which is where Canada is, so I'm happier here, to cut a long story short.

Actually I'm a lot happier here then I ever thought I would be, I never even vaguely consider the idea of moving back to Europe. Makes me shudder.

My observation on British people is that the British are the world's most opinionated people on subjects they know nothing about, which I suppose is an observation that could be levelled quite frequently about posters on this forum, but I'm sure it is some underlying result of living on an island. Basically the mindset that led to Britain having an Empire - "we know better than you".

dgagitw

Hmmm, if 10% of the 35M Canadians moved to the US at once, that would increase the US population by 1%....can't see they would care that much. I'm inclined to think that Americans taking up residence in Canada in order to obtain healthcare in extremis would likely be more of an issue, but even then not a major one.

dbd33

The housing costs? Maybe if you're trying to get people to move from rural Texas to Vancouver. I'd put the weather way before that on the list of reasons why people don't want to move north.

dbd33

I didn't say it was a rational fear. In fact, in drawing an implied parallel between Romanians and Canadians, I was trying to show that irrational fear is an important factor in consideration of immigration policies in North America as well as in Europe.

Aviator

As soon as the southern US dries up, is uninhabitable and water is short, Americans won't be going south.

Alan2005

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye...

Do you read other forums? Being opinionated on the internet transcends nationality.

MikeUK

yep the bad news for us will be that we will become warmer

I suspect that the US will suggest a shared economic union similar to Europe with proportional representation, bye bye sovereignty, bye bye provinces, hello new states
Long live the united states of North America (USNA)

trevorandjo york

It sound like an opinion to me..

iaink

But canadians hate the USA and love to point out the differences between "us and them", so would never agree to it...


Quite what the US would do then is anyones guess, but its not going to be pretty.

MikeUK

I don't think they'd ask us to agree, simply shuting down trade would suffice!

Steve_

A lot of Americans still think the 9/11 attackers came through Canada - they're incredibly paranoid and xenophobic, e.g. http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/08...near-victoria/

cheeky_monkey

The English hate the French..well pretty much everyone in Europe hates the French but we still ended up all in the EU...needs must and all that.

Oink

That was meant to be tongue in cheek with a quote from Jimmy Carter's so-called 1979 Malaise speech.

Steve_

Look at the housing prices in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary etc. and compare them with most of the US. I'm not saying it's universally the case but it is often brought up as an issue when trying to get Americans to move here. Obviously it's not as bad as NYC but compare say, Washington to BC. Detroit/Buffalo/Rochester to southern Ontario.

One of my pet peeves frankly is getting people from all around the world to move to Canada and not making enough of an effort to get Americans to move here, some of the stuff I hear coming out of the Alberta immigration minister about going over to Germany/UK to get welders and heavy-duty mechanics and bus/train drivers - surely there are plenty of them in the US who need work?

But Americans apparently don't like moving here, if you look at the CIC breakdown for grants of permits and permanent residency very few of them do.

From their perspective it's a lot of paperwork to live on the other side of a line on a map and then you've got a higher cost of living, mortgage as well so that's the problem.

Still, given the state of their economy, healthcare and public education system, you'd think there'd be more of a chance at present.

Steve_

Which is what an observation is.