People Were Desperately Googling 'How Can I Move to Canada' Tuesday Night
By Samuel Lieberman
A Place Beyond the Trump. Photo: GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/Getty Images
On the night of Super Tuesday, as millions of Americans contemplated the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency, some citizens began thinking about the journey north. Mashable reports that Google searches for "How to move to Canada" surged as Trump won primaries in seven states.
Searches for "how can I move to Canada" on Google have spiked +350% in the past four hours #SuperTuesday
— Simon Rogers (@smfrogers) March 2, 2016
Google data editor Simon Rogers noticed at 9 p.m. on Tuesday that the number of searches had jumped 350 percent in the preceding four hours. By midnight the numbers were up 1,150 percent. (Though they are lower than the bump in November 2004, when George Bush was reelected.) The majority of the searches came from Massachusetts, where Trump won 49 percent of the primary vote. It may have been a coincidence, but Canada's website was slow enough last night that it displayed a message about delays, perhaps owing to a surge in traffic.
As a Trump nomination becomes the problem we will all have to live with, Canada — by total and complete coincidence — is suddenly trying to relax its citizenship qualifications. But to the hopefuls trying to get out: Trump is harder to avoid than you think.
A Toronto city councilmember also decided to help out American deserters, causing a near Twitter storm:
To all my American followers tweeting at me tonight, here's the link: https://t.co/0epl8Z5zlQ pic.twitter.com/mMfeIc1Ayg
— Norm Kelly (@norm) March 2, 2016
how can i move to canada
Voters Desperately Google How to Move to Canada