A Canadian challenges Americans considering moving north to stop treating Canada as a backup plan. He outlines Canada's immigration system, its complex history including Indigenous heritage, and asks prospective immigrants to approach with humility, learn French, and choose Canada deliberately rather than as an escape from the US.
Chapters
You know, I'm really grateful that so many Americans watch my content. You're curious about Canada, and we appreciate it. But I want to say something, and I, I hope you will hear it in, in the way it's intended. Many Canadians feel like Americans see us as their fire escape, an exit plan, not a sovereign nation. Wanting to leave the United States is not the same as wanting to come to Canada. Those are two completely different feelings and some of you are confusing them. We saw it the day after your election. Move to Canada searches spiked over 1,000%. A lot of us saw that and realized, oh, they're not thinking about Canada. They're thinking about not America. I know what that feels like from this side of the border. It feels like being someone's backup plan. Canada is not a concept. It's not a vague, cold place where people are polite and nothing bad ever happens. We are a country with our own complicated, sometimes painful history. Hundreds of years as a nation, thousands of years of Indigenous history before that. We've done great things. We've done terrible things. We're still learning. We are still a young country. That history has moral weight. It asks something of the people who live here and of the people who want to. We have our own immigration rules, our own labor market needs, a point system. If you're a retiree, by the way, and wondering how it works, check out seniors.todmaffin.com. It all surprises people, and I understand why, but it shouldn't. You are not moving to an idea. You are moving to a country. The Canada that some of you are picturing, the polite, apologetic cousin who will take you in without question, that place doesn't exist in the way that I think you think it does. The real Canada is much more complex, more layered, more interesting, more demanding than that. It asks you to show up curious, to arrive with some humility, to learn the words to O Canada. Even the French parts. Especially the French parts. We do welcome you. Helping our neighbours in the worst of times is part of who we are. That hasn't changed. And it won't. But there is a difference between choosing Canada and escaping America. We want to be chosen.
