A s a result of the candidates from which to choose to become president of the United States — and especially as a response to the results of the election this past week — Americans have been seeking solace in heading towards the country north of the border, causing a significant surge in interest of one-way flights to Canada using multiple “engines” for researching airfares and airline tickets.
Significant Surge in Interest of One-Way Flights to Canada
“When looking specifically at one-way flights to Canada, some travel websites reported huge increases in volume”, according to this article by Alexandra Talty of Forbes. “Between 6:00 p.m. ET Tuesday and 8:00 a.m. ET Wednesday, Cheapflights.com reported more than 1,000% increase in one-way tickets to Canada. Japan, Australia, the U.K., New Zealand, South Africa and Germany also had a surge of one-way flight searches between midnight and 8:00 a.m., says Cheapflights.com.”
In terms of moving to another country, “After the news of Donald J. Trump’s victory in the presidential election was confirmed early Wednesday, many Americans apparently considered doing just that.” This is according to this article written by Jonah Engel Bromwich of The New York Times.
“As Donald Trump moved closer to an improbable presidential victory late on Election Day, some distraught Americans renewed their election-season vow to move to Canada if X-candidate is elected president”, according to this article written by David Floyd of Investopedia. “Want evidence? Canada’s immigration website crashed.”
Floyd cautions that moving to Canada is not as easy as packing your bag and heading across the border, as there are qualifications which Americans must meet if they are going to officially move to Canada — which many apparently do not bother doing despite their disdain for the person who is elected president.
Summary
I thought I had escaped from the likes of Donald Trump and Al Sharpton when I moved away from New York — the city in which I was born and raised as well as spent the earlier years of my adult life — some years ago; but they managed to capture the national and international spotlights anyway.
Despite the vehement claims of a few readers of The Gate who are convinced that I am biased, I did not vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton as president of the United States, as I could not in good conscience have been proud to vote for either candidate because I disliked both candidates equally. There was no better of two evils for this election, in my opinion — not even with Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, or any other candidates from other political parties.
In fact, I even considered running for president of the United States myself.
Regardless, Donald Trump will be the president of the United States; and running away to another country as an American is not the solution. Rather, take comfort in knowing that the president of the United States cannot just do anything he or she wants thanks to the political system which has checks and balances built into it — and even though the House of Representatives and the Senate will both have a majority of members who are affiliated with the Republican party, that does not exactly mean that they will agree with everything which Donald Trump will want to implement…
…and who knows? As with his actual election as president of the United States, perhaps Donald Trump will surprise everyone by actually sticking to his pledge in improving the United States. Maybe things will eventually get better — and we will never know unless he is at least given a chance.
Besides — as a hallmark of the democratic system — the best way in which we can ensure that the United States is as good of a country as possible is if we as American citizens do our part to contribute to that effort; and a similar concept can be applied to the citizens of other countries which elect leaders and lawmakers.
Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.
