It’s something of an American election tradition: threaten to move north to Canada if the election goes south for their preferred candidate.
These threats ran particularly rampant in 2016 following President Donald Trump’s victory. Canada’s immigration website reportedly went down, many American celebrities vowed to make the move and some parts of Canada marketed themselves to disappointed American voters. However, the threats proved to be empty, as Trump’s win produced an ever-so-slight increase in citizenship applications.
Nonetheless, according to at YouGov survey of more than 6,600 US adults, roughly a third (31%) of Americans say they are somewhat or strongly interested in making the norward move if the candidate they intend to vote for isn’t elected.
Interest among Democrats (41% of whom are somewhat of very interested) to move to Canada is roughly double that of Republicans (19%). A little more than a quarter (28%) of Independents expressed interest.
Americans age 18-24 (35% are interested), 25-34 (40%) and 35-44 (63%) are more likely to say they’re interested in defecting to Canada compared to those 45-54 (30%) and 55 and over (22%).
Of course, it’s worth noting the border between the two countries remains closed until at least July 21 in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Trump’s job approval data shows 42.3 percent approve and 56.2 percent disapprove as of June 18. According to YouGov voting intention data, 41.2 percent of Americans say they’ll vote for Trump while 49 percent say they’ll vote for former vice president Joe Biden.
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