This could be obsolete now, since Harper supposedly lost. Not that I object to shining some sunlight on the actions of bigots, obsolete or not.

It's not exactly easy to move to Canada anyhow. Like most countries they want only people with very limited skill sets, which sadly I don't have. I can't move to New Zealand, Canada, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland or any of the places my ex-wife and I looked to move to ages ago. But yeah, semi-moot point about Harper now that Canada finally ousted him and his brand of crazy. They sadly didn't go far enough and still have a guy who favors things like the Keystone Pipeline (though I hear even Alberta itself no longer wants it).

I find it more amusing when Republicans voters threaten to move to Canada or the UK if a Democrat wins... everything they hate about the Democrats is there, times 10 or more. Leaving the US because of our crazy slide further and further to the right nearly makes sense (not the reason we were looking to leave, we genuinely wanted to move to New Zealand, and the others were secondary thoughts just to really change things up).

Yeah, I looked into emigrating to New Zealand or Australia in 2004, when Dubya got re-elected...my faith in this country being completely shattered by that stupidity. And apparently that was just 5 years too late. I have the skills, but at my age that wasn't enough. I'd have had to have a few hundred thousand dollars to bring along, in order to have enough points to be allowed into either.

I did the exact same thing around the exact same time (and for reasons including the exact same one you mention).

It really sucked. With as much pride as the US has, you'd think other countries would be falling all over themselves to welcome us.

I'm pretty liberal minded but things have been going too far in this country recently. Our social benefits and tolerance of other cultures are being abused. Perhaps muslim women should consider respecting the traditions and customs of the country they moved to instead of expecting everyone else to acquiesce to their demands. Our citizenship ceremonies might seem pointless to them but they matter to us a great deal.

Have a little perspective, would muslim culture be tolerant of non-compliance? No, you would be put to death for it. Meanwhile in Canada you can freely debate, engage and have a wide variety of cultural freedoms. All Canadians were asking is to move a piece of cloth for 30 seconds during a very important tradition of ours, one where you join our country and become a citizen of our country.

Stephen Harper was wrong to politicize this issue but muslim women who won't even offer the country they're moving to a modicum of respect and understanding are wrong too. If people are going to become so abrasive over such a non-issue in a country that already bends over backwards for other cultures, where will they be on issues that actually matter?