Is the possibility of a Trump presidency sending Americans north?

The Americans are coming! The Americans are coming!

167% That’s the average weekly increase in Google searches for “move to Canada” since last February, when Donald Trump became the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. Similar (if shorter) spikes were seen after every U.S. election since 2004, but, in reality, Canada’s high taxes and arduous immigration process largely deter the dissatisfied on either side of the political fence from making an actual move, says Joshua Labove, a researcher in geopolitics at SFU. “But where it could become attractive is for research faculty and those in the arts, sciences and curatorial professions, who have some NAFTA mobility across the border,” says Labove–who himself accepted a job at SFU over offers in his home state of Wisconsin in part due to fraught politics there. “Institutions like UBC, SFU and the Vancouver Art Gallery could be well positioned to say to folks from American institutions that Canada is open and worthy of consideration.”