Donald Trump election sparks U.S. interest in move to Canada, say immigration lawyers

Original Publication Date November 08, 2024 - 1:06 AM

Vancouver immigration lawyer Ryan Rosenberg says he’s been getting so many inquiries from disaffected U.S. voters that he set up a website to address their concerns.

It’s called “Trumpugees.ca” and asks visitors on the home page: “Tired of Trump? Thinking about Canada? We can help.”

Rosenberg – a managing partner at Larlee Rosenberg, Barristers & Solicitors – says he and his colleagues are sensing a spike in immigration interest from a broad swath of U.S. residents disappointed by Donald Trump’s election win Tuesday.

Immigration lawyer Meghan Felt says she’s hearing the same thing from her office in Newfoundland, the vast majority of queries coming from high-skilled workers.

In Toronto, Royal LePage president Phil Soper says online searches of Canadian properties spiked in the months leading up to the vote and has notably shifted away from recreational listings.

"This leap in interest is focused almost entirely on urban -- so it's Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, not the Muskoka, Whistler, Canmore. So it is very much tied to relocation, not vacation," says Soper.

Maryland geologist Jackson Speary says he’s felt disillusioned with politics for “a very long time,” and is considering job or educational opportunities in Canada.

The 22-year-old says he's worried Trump’s environmental and economic policies will hinder his work, much of which involves ensuring compliance to federal environmental rules. He wonders if his career would be more stable in Canada.

“It's a very scary time to be my age and try to continue my career. Especially when you know political turmoil is so topsy-turvy,” Speary says from Stevensville, Md., where he works.

"I feel as though there's a lot more job security for me in Canada, and potentially a lot more job security for me anywhere else," he says, noting he's also considering a move to New Zealand, where he has professional contacts.

Speary says he's heard Canada has capped the number of foreign students permitted but that likely won't dissuade him from pursuing grad school north of the border: "It is going to be harder, but I think I would be willing to try."

Grand proclamations to move to Canada are nothing new and often don't pan out, says Rosenberg, who recalls similar promises after George W. Bush's second election from "mostly blue state Americans who wanted out." Rosenberg dubbed those would-be Canadians "Bushugees."

But this time, he says the demographics of the disaffected seem broader in scope, encompassing wealthy Americans, ethnic minorities, Democrats disappointed by the loss of Kamala Harris and U.S. companies interested in setting up a Canadian outpost.

"What I'm seeing now that's a little bit different is that, especially on the corporate side, companies are facilitating the movement of employees," he says, adding he sees a distinction between "Trumpugees" and "people feeling real persecution."

Felt doesn't have a targeted website like Rosenberg nor is she doing focused promotion, but she says word-of-mouth chatter led five Americans to reach out in the past few days. That's a jump from maybe one a week.

One client, who had mused on moving to Canada two months ago, emailed after the vote.

"They're moving forward, like, immediately," Felt says from St. John’s, N.L., where she is a partner at McInnes Cooper law firm.

More often than not, Americans are curious about Canada's urban centres and don't ask about political differences between provinces or countries, she adds.

"Canada is Canada. I've heard of Americans refer to Canada as like a really large Massachusetts."

Georgia-bred Alison Attanasio says she and her family moved to Toronto from New York following Trump's first election win in 2016. They had been thinking about leaving New York City anyway because of the cost of living, but once Trump took office they focused on leaving the country.

"We were like: 'I don't think that there is another place in the U.S. that is going to feel as good as Canada,'" says Attanasio, who identifies as queer and has a non-binary child.

Citing concerns over rising gun violence and "how queer-phobic, racist and sexist, much of America is," she says they began efforts in 2017 when her husband requested a work secondment to Toronto, which was approved two years later.

Attanasio, who was a lawyer in New York and is currently preparing to take equivalency exams so she can practice in Toronto, says she feels extremely privileged to be able to make the move. Even though she recognizes similar populist sentiments in Canada's politics and populace, she says the climate is different here.

"Judicial independence is really, really important in Canada, and that is not the case in the U.S. And I think that it makes a huge, difference," says Attanasio, who became a permanent resident June 2021, and received Canadian citizenship this past March.

She adds that accessible health care also distinguishes the countries in a way she "really did not expect."

"There is a low-level hum in the United States of instability and insecurity because of a fear of, 'If I get sick, what will happen?' I have had many friends get sick and not seek medical attention because they are afraid of the bills."

Former New Yorker Stephen Shainbart, who moved to Toronto after Trump's first election in 2016, cautions Canadians against being too smug over American hand-wringing, pointing to our own political turmoil with anti-vaxxers and the trucker protest that paralyzed downtown Ottawa.

"(Canadians) are at risk too, and they have to become more active citizens and more informed and pay attention to reputable media," says Shainbart, a psychologist who wrote about his efforts to move to Toronto in the book "I Actually Did It!: Becoming Canadian because of Trump."

Shainbart says he's just as much of a patriot as he ever was, insisting: "I don't feel that I left America. I feel like America left me. They're turning against their own morals, their own foundation of accepting tolerance and democracy."

While he wasn't able to help the Democrats campaign this time around, he says he has done remote work from Toronto in the past.

"I did more in 2020 supporting the Democrats and (President Joe) Biden than I ever did in any election where I was living in the U.S. because of the internet," he says.

"I definitely will continue to fight for the U.S. being at its best, not its worst. Even if I'm living in Canada, I can do a lot."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.