Don’t move to Canada if Trump wins election
September 19, 2016
I’m sure by now we have all met someone who has said that if Donald Trump (or insert despised candidate’s name here) gets elected president, they’ll move to Canada. Though oftentimes this remark is made in jest and in passing, the comment sits in the air and shrouds our minds in serious contemplation.
This threat is not unique to this particular moment in history. After the Super Tuesday elections, when Trump defeated Ted Cruz, Google experienced a record level spike in searches related to “move to Canada.” The last time similar searches hit a peak was in 2004, when Bush won re-election. But as mortifying as the prospect of a Trump presidency is (with a vice president whose VP role model is Dick Cheney), we cannot up and leave America for Canada.
Trump winning the election in November is not reason to leave; on the contrary, it is the very reason we need to stay. To get to where he is today, the Republican nominee for president of the United States of America, Trump appealed to less educated, blue-collar workers living in racially isolated areas, who feel that their voices are not being heard. To do so, he played on a fear that immigrants take American jobs, a fear that terrorism will spill into American borders and the general fear that America is no longer what it used to be. As a result, he amplified xenophobic, Islamaphobic, homophobic and other “othering” sentiments.
Consequently, Trump winning the election is not the main issue. Whether or not he wins the presidential election, his followers will remain, and so will the toxic sentiments that he brought to the surface. As these tensions rise, it becomes ever more important to combat injustice and fight for the rights of underrepresented groups.
That being said, the comments Trump has made throughout his campaign do pose potentially dangerous futures for minorities that Trump is targeting. Based on Trump’s proposed policies regarding Muslims and immigrants, America very well may become a dangerous place to live for those groups of people.
According to a poll by Vox/Morning Consult, 53 percent of Hispanic people, 38 percent of African Americans and 43 percent of “other nonwhite” people who participated in the poll answered that they were “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to “consider moving to another country, such as Canada.”
When the governing institutions of the country that you live in begin to target you and jeopardize your ability to live peacefully and comfortably, one should be able to seek that better, safer life where they will not be persecuted.
However, for the white voters who just can’t stand the idea of a Trump presidency, running away to Canada will not solve any of the issues that face America. Fleeing to Canada because one refuses to be part of a country condoning racism and bigotry counterproductively makes that individual complicit in the racism and bigotry they are trying to condemn. These supposedly “liberal-minded” individuals threatening to move to Canada fail to recognize the dense undertones of privilege within that statement: that they can up and move their lives simply when the going gets tough. This is the same sort of privilege that they criticize Trump supporters for having and refusing to give up.
If a mass exodus of Trump critics fled America for Canada, then Trump would really “win.” He would have his great white America with policies that oppress and exclude. Those without the means to leave would suffer the most. We may make our grand political statement, but leave behind a responsibility greater than our moral high ground.
In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, narrator Nick Carraway reflects on Tom and Daisy that, “They were careless people…they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” Whether Fitzgerald realized it or not, he made a greater commentary on what it means to be privileged.
We are the Toms and Daisys leaving behind an America we helped disfigure, for others to deal with the consequences. We need to take responsibility and play an active role in resolving the racial tensions that we see rising. We may not feel complicit in the bigotry that Trump magnifies, but washing our hands clean of him by threatening to move renders us as part of the problem.
Maral Margossian is the Opinion & Editorial Editor and can be reached at [email protected].
David Hunt 1990 • Sep 21, 2016 at 9:34 am
@ChrisG:
“Racist”. Or “bigot” or whatever. What a Leftist says when they’re losing the argument – it’s a way to SHUT YOU UP and place ANYTHING you say outside the domain of discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrt6msZmU7Y
ChrisG • Sep 21, 2016 at 8:40 pm
@David Hunt: I am well aware of that, that is why I said that I tend to consider the source of those who are calling me names 1st. I don’t shut up when the name-calling begins, I do my best to “twist the knife”, if you know what I mean. Personally I take great pleasure in pi$$ing off Progressives.
David Hunt 1990 • Sep 20, 2016 at 6:12 pm
@ML/NJ: You didn’t see it in five days, so it doesn’t exist. My personal bet is that had you strayed off the “beaten path” you’d have gotten an eyeful.
Entire areas of Paris, and other French cities… not to mention other cities in western Europe, are now NO-GO zones, even to the police. This is a full-throated invasion. And Hillary wants to bring ONE MILLION+ here in just her first term.
ML/NJ • Sep 21, 2016 at 8:34 am
Look, I don’t want to defend Muslims. But you seem to know better than I. When was the last time you were in Paris, or even in New York? I was in New York last night. Are there areas of NYC that I wouldn’t walk around in? Sure there are. But such places are not the real New York City; and your off the beaten path places are not the real Paris either.
ML/NJ • Sep 19, 2016 at 12:46 pm
To David Hunt about the Paris Video you linked “PARIS – SEPTEMBER – 2016 (GONE T0 HELL)”:
I watched and posted this comment there:
>>>>
I’m as wary of Muslims as anyone.
But this doesn’t represent the Paris I saw as a five day visitor just two weeks ago. I did the usual touristy things: Champs-Elysées walk and then to Eifel Tower, Versailles, D’Orsay, Louvre, Notre Dame, Marais walking tour, #69 Bus ride. Stayed near St Augistin, rode the subways. The city was cleaner than I remembered from years ago; the Parisians much more friendly. There were a few Muslims but almost all were non-threatening family types.
<<<<
ChrisG • Sep 19, 2016 at 11:27 am
Trump is absolutely right. In fact, I would go even further than he does, & when I am called a “xenophobe/ homophobe/ sexist/ misogynist/ racist/ hater/ yada yada yada” I will simply consider the source & oftentimes take it as a compliment, cuz I can feel comfortable that I am irking the Progressive Leftists due to their calling me names. I must get getting close to hitting the target once the name-calling begins, ‘cuz other than committing acts of violence (which is common on the Left & is an important part of their playbook), that’s about all they can do! They can’t look you in the eye & actually have a mature, respectable discussion of the issues. That is not how the Left operates, ‘cuz you can’t “transform America” w/o destroying things.
Daniel J Hogan • Sep 19, 2016 at 11:27 am
As a UMass alum (’79 Econ) I had long given up hope for my Alma Mater, mo more so than when faculty members were outwardly rude to Andrew Card on the dais at commencement when he was to receive an honorary degree. Such a boorish display I have never seen before or after. But reading the comments following the author’s Stalinist blather gave me reason for hope. Thank you courageous respondents, you made my day.
David Hunt 1990 • Sep 19, 2016 at 11:11 am
@Dave: Don’t forget those Masters degrees in “Underwater Basket Weaving by Transgender Lesbians of Color”
@ML/NJ: Excellent point about disgruntled employees.
@Doug in Jax: Just google “I trained my H1-B replacement” and see what comes up.
Note: I say that last one as a son of an immigrant, who is married to a non-Caucasian immigrant.
Paul M J • Sep 19, 2016 at 10:48 am
Why is no one threatening to move to Mexico?
Shawn Sullivan • Sep 19, 2016 at 10:44 am
There is at least one university that will be offering a bachelor degree program in Social Justice. I pity the poor snowflakes that fall for that one. I can just imagine the syllabus right now, Advanced Self-flagellation, Cultural Suicide 101, or maybe even Sandal Licking for Caucasians. You people are insane…
Ullr • Sep 19, 2016 at 10:12 am
“he played on a fear that immigrants take American jobs, a fear that terrorism will spill into American borders and the general fear that America is no longer what it used to be. As a result, he amplified xenophobic, Islamaphobic, homophobic and other “othering” sentiments.”
On the date this was published, the news is filled with stories about a naturalized Somali in Minnesota and a naturalized Afghan in New Jersey having committed stabbings and bombings. Meanwhile Milo advocates for Trump. Under Obama, African-Americans’ incomes, wealth, and home ownership rates have declined relative to those of whites. Real income and wealth have declined for the bottom 93% of Americans while the 1% have accelerated their share of national wealth compared with under Bush. The elixir, we are reminded, must be Hillary who, as Senator, voted for the Iraq War and Bush’s Wall Street bailout. As Secretary of State, Hillary’s foreign policy accomplishments included the executive war overthrowing Khaddafi and aid in toppling the elected leader of Ukraine, the attempt at replicating that effort by overthrowing Assad, the resultant expansion of ISIS and creation of refugees, and the rekindling of the cold war. One might have expected privileged elites living in academic ivory towers would sense that something is wrong before “less educated, blue-collar workers living in racially isolated areas” figured it out.
Dave • Sep 19, 2016 at 9:57 am
If Trump wins you should flee the country. America, under a Trump regime, will turn into a true capitalist meritocracy. Such a country will hurt the minority of Americans who invested their time and have assumed serious debt to aquire advanced education in Urban Studies, Gender Studies, Womens Studies, Psychology, Sociology, and the like.
Trump will force us to work and actually produce. He says he will “Make America Great Again”, and with his track record of delivering ahead of schedule and under budget, we should believe he will do what he says he will do.
I’m afraid we have no choice but to move to Canada, if they’ll let us in….because we have no money, no skills, and obviously, no brains.
ML/NJ • Sep 19, 2016 at 9:57 am
Keep telling yourself we’re all so stupid and uneducated. I work in an environment where college degrees are required. Only one in 50 supports Hillary. Most of the other 49 are vocally for Trump, as am I.
Most of us are tired of the fraud, deceit and corruption that our government has become. Hillary is the Queen of Corruption. Her foundation is said to divert all of 6% of its income to charity. If it weren’t associated with the untouchable Clinton name, she, her husband and her daughter would be in prison already.
Trump has been in the public eye at least since he rescued the Wollman Skating Rink renovation. (Google it if you don’t know about this.) Almost every project of his has been success. He has thousands of employees. Disgruntled ones must be hard to find or you would be seeing them on CNN every day. Think about it.
Doug in Jax • Sep 19, 2016 at 9:46 am
“To do so, he played on a fear that immigrants take American jobs, a fear that terrorism will spill into American borders and the general fear that America is no longer what it used to be.”
Wake up Maral, those aren’t empty fears, they are facts. And the hardest hit haven’t been what you dismiss as “uneducated whites” (wow, what a superiority complex you have), the hardest hit have been black Americans.
Turns out that your policies and failures have negatively impacted most Americans.
David Hunt 1990 • Sep 19, 2016 at 9:40 am
Mass Muslim immigration is all diversity and tolerance and sh*t until you get beaten up by Muslim thugs, your mother/sister/wife/girlfriend/daughter is gang-raped by them and then spit on and called a western whore. It’s all sweetness and multiculturalism until your nephew or son is anally-raped by some POS who has a “sexual emergency”.
http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2016/09/15/french-police-we-can-not-enforce-the-laws-in-muslim-migrants-controlled-areas.html
** Remember: Hillary wants to bring ONE MILLION of them here in her first term alone. Oh, and related, here are the streets of Paris. TODAY. Next year, New York, Washington, Boston, etc.? Just weep:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju79YT_lBVI
** Title: PARIS – SEPTEMBER – 2016 (GONE T0 HELL)
>> And another two videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6peY9smzqRA
** Title: Merkel’s Migrant CRISIS One YEAR ON – Germany will not be the same again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6EeaHdLNjw
** Title: Migrant Crisis In Europe
>> This will be America’s reality under Hillary. More:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3784688/At-30-0000-men-close-Sydney-road-outside-Lakemba-Mosque-four-hours-offer-Eid-Al-Adha-prayer-mark-end-Mecca-pilgrimage.html
** This isn’t prayer. It’s a POWER STATEMENT. It’s a TERRITORY CLAIM. And again, Hillary wants to bring
ONE MILLION+ into the US in her first term alone. For me, this is the DEFINING ISSUE.
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Qpy0mXg8Y
Why We Are Afraid, A 1400 Year Secret, by Dr Bill Warner
And a radio interview with the same man:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMwcX_vU1lM
Dr. Bill Warner – The True History of Muslim Conquests – Hour 1
And a short talk about the history of Islam by a woman whose formerly-Christian country was overrun:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jdv8kdhy4I
Islam – The Undeniable Truth – A quick lesson in the history of Islam – WS 2015 Brigitte Gabriel
And a longer speech by the same woman, outlining more of her own personal history with “Muslim refugees” – as well as their long-term plan to conquer the US:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFO1AtjoUoo
Brigitte Gabriel: Radical Islam: The Plan to Destroy America from Within: Infiltration (2011)
And some more reading on that:
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1235
THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD’S “GENERAL STRATEGIC GOAL” FOR NORTH AMERICA
Quote: “Written sometime in 1987 but not formally published until May 22, 1991, Akram’s 18-page document listed the Brotherhood’s 29 likeminded “organizations of our friends” that shared the common goal of dismantling American institutions and turning the U.S. into a Muslim nation.”
A related article:
http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/20.pdf
An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America
MY BET: Not one Liberal reading this will have the COURAGE to even look, read, or listen. My experience with Leftists is that they are that magical, toxic mix of virtually-complete ignorance on a topic and the arrogance of thinking they ARE informed… and therefore don’t need to read anything else.