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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Augustus Gloop who wrote (56425)	11/4/2004 11:25:28 AM
From: abuelita	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

Disaffected Americans look north to 'better government' By MARINA JIMÉNEZ With a report from Jeff Gray Globe & Mail UPDATED AT 11:22 AM EST Thursday, Nov 4, 2004 Some Americans are willing to do anything to avoid another four years of George W. Bush -- even move to Canada. Joe Auerbach is so disappointed with Mr. Bush's election victory that he is planning to give up a job as a systems analyst and leave his comfortable life in Columbus, Ohio, to move to a country with "a better government and more reasonable people." "Today, once the Bush victory was clear, my e-mail was burning up with people vowing to leave the U.S. for Canada," said Mr. Auerbach, 27. "I don't want to be living in the U.S. when China decides we are a threat and when George Bush starts drafting computer engineers into the army. I'm morally opposed to the Bush administration." He and several other disenchanted Americans are contacting immigration lawyers north of the border to see whether they qualify to immigrate to Canada. It is too soon to say whether this is political hot air or the start of a new trend in immigration. But among some middle-class, liberal Americans, there is a growing sense of political disengagement as they realize the majority of their fellow citizens support the conservative agenda of Mr. Bush, who received 51 per cent of the popular vote, winning more votes than any other president in U.S. history. "Mr. Auerbach is one of many middle-class Americans who have a philosophical difference with the direction the U.S. is taking," said Sergio Karas, a Toronto immigration lawyer. "I have received several inquiries from people like him who want to move here." Jacqueline Bart, a Toronto immigration lawyer, said she recently attended a conference in New York and more than a dozen U.S. lawyers asked her about sending their children to study in Canada. "There is a sense of hesitation about the direction Bush is taking the country in," she said. Clyde Williamson, a libertarian from Ohio, feels the Bush administration is too conservative on social-justice issues such as gay rights, abortion and the medicinal use of marijuana. He is also opposed to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. "I don't think the U.S. is going to turn into Nazi Germany or anything. But it is going to become a much more conservative country," said the 29-year-old computer-security engineer. Others feel Mr. Bush's unilateralist foreign policy is more troubling even than his social conservatism. A former U.S. diplomat who has already applied for permanent-resident status said yesterday that Mr. Bush's election victory has accelerated his determination to relocate permanently to Vancouver. "I'm watching this administration preside over the virtual destruction of relations with the Muslim world -- and, I fear, end up strengthening the forces of terrorism as a result," he said. "The values of Canada are what I thought the values of the U.S. used to be: personal freedoms, a sense of need for a global community and consensus. The U.S. is losing its way." A Toronto lawyer representing three U.S. soldiers who have fled to Canada to avoid fighting in Iraq said Mr. Bush's re-election means more U.S. deserters are likely to seek refugee status north of the border. Jeffry House, a Vietnam-era draft-dodger who is steering the refugee claims of the three young men, says he has received about 80 e-mails from other U.S. soldiers stationed around the world, inquiring about escaping to Canada to avoid serving in Iraq. At least five U.S. soldiers are believed to have fled to Canada. Maria Iadinardi, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said it is too soon to say whether there has been a spike in the number of Americans being granted permanent residency, noting the number has fluctuated in recent years from a low of 4,437 in 1998 to a high of 5,604 in 2001. So far this year, 5,353 Americans have become permanent residents. theglobeandmail.com