Canada Would Welcome Election Losers IT'S a refrain heard every four years: "If [insert Republican name] is elected president, I'm moving to Canada." The pledge comes mostly from left-leaning Americans who view Canada, with its universal health care and cultural progressiveness, as a liberal refuge from Red State America. Celebrities, in particular, seem prone to such declarations. Cher recently declared on Twitter (and later deleted) that she could not "breathe the same air" as Mitt Romney. Susan Sarandon and George Lopez have both cited Canada as a potential escape. But has anyone asked the Canadians what they might think of a sudden influx of lefty Americans? "Every Canadian I know will take exile in Florida," joked Craig Offman, the foreign editor of The Globe and Mail. A massive influx of Americans would generate widespread fear and terror. In truth, many Canadians would welcome the influx of disenchanted Obama supporters. "In Canada we're happy to provide a safe haven for next-door neighbors in the middle of a marital dispute," said Douglas Coupland, the writer and artist. And if anyone trips while crossing the border, we're happy to set their broken bones for free. The sentiment is echoed in business circles. "The more the better is my view," added Robert Prichard, chairman of the Bank of Montreal. That said, President Obama is going to win, and we won't be getting a special dividend on Nov. 7. The image of Canada as a political haven for Americans goes back centuries. "Canada began receiving U.S. emigrants at the time of the Revolutionary War, when the United Empire Loyalists left everything behind to build lives in the north," said John Manley, a former deputy prime minister of Canada. In that case, they were conservatives wanting to live under the king. But recent history suggests that few actually follow through. While the number of United States citizens who permanently reside in Canada doubled during George W. Bush's presidency (from 5,800 in 2000 to 11,200 in 2008, according to Citizen and Immigration Canada, a government agency), researchers say it had little to do with the elections. "Relatively few people make the difficult decision to uproot themselves and their families," said Dr. Janice Gross Stein, the director of the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs. The one big exception was the desire to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War. These days, pocketbook issues outweigh politics. "By far the most common reason for migration between Canada and the U.S. is the labor market," said Jeffrey Reitz, a professor of immigration studies at the Munk School. Indeed, few took Rush Limbaugh seriously when he and other conservatives borrowed a page from the liberal playbook and threatened to move if Obamacare passed in 2010. While Mr. Limbaugh pledged to move to Costa Rica, he might consider Canada the next time Democrats pass a big piece of legislation. Rather than a leftist sanctuary, Canada has recently swung to the right, which may give liberals-in-exile pause. "We've got a right-wing government up here too, eh," said Matthieu Aikins, a Canadian journalist who lives in Kabul, Afghanistan. And our prime minister's policy on Israel and Palestine makes Romney look like Jimmy Carter. Since 2006, the Canadian government has been dominated by the Conservative Party, the result of the 2000 merger between the Progressive Conservatives and the right-wing Canadian Alliance. "People would have to come with their eyes wide open," said Stockwell Day, former leader of the Canadian Alliance. We're engaged in a program of significant fiscal restraint. Of course, right-wing is a relative concept. "It's Canadian conservatism," said Margaret Wente, a widely read columnist for The Globe and Mail. That means few abortion restrictions, strong bank regulations and no capital punishment. "We also have gay marriage," she said. Left-leaning Americans will still find plenty to savor. "Even though Canada is now in one of its most conservative periods in decades, which I hate, the situation would still pale considerably in terms of threatened civil liberties," said the musician Rufus Wainwright, who was raised in Montreal and now lives in New York. Yet some Canadian progressives think it would be ultimately self-defeating, for their cause and for the continent, for like-minded Americans to decamp north. "My plea would be for American liberals and progressives to fight the good fight at home," said Bob Rae, the leader of the opposition Liberal Party of Canada. "Stick it out," said Jeremy Laing, a fashion designer in Toronto whose American husband emigrated in 2005 to be with Mr. Laing. The margin between left and right in the U.S. is so slight that even a small exodus could swing the future balance. "What would help is if more of us liberal Canadians moved to the U.S.," Mr. Laing added. But I won't do that until my marriage is federally recognized.