Monday, September 7th, 2026
Bill Bonner, from Poitou, France
We begin the week with news from the Independent:
The New American Dream? Leave America and move to Europe
In its 250th year, a country once defined by possibility now feels consumed by greed, division and profit over people, eclipsing the ideals it was built on…concerns over safety, healthcare and hope are driving record numbers of US citizens to abandon the country they once loved.
People came to America in the belief that anything was possible...now they are leaving, perhaps believing that the most likely possibility is disagreeable.
A friend, whose family has been in the US for more than 300 years, recently confided that he was applying for Canadian citizenship.
“You just never know what will happen. Canada just changed the rules, making it easier to get Canadian citizenship if you had an ancestor who was Canadian. So, I’m going for it.”
He is not fleeing. At least, not yet. He is buying another possibility. All he needs is a great-grandfather from Moose Jaw, and he will have a put option. If things go bad at home...it will pay off.
Pity those who had no options. They hung around Saint Petersburg. Or Saginaw. The poor ‘Kulaks’ might have been trying to improve farm yields...and then, Stalin starved them all.
And what about the earnest citoyen who wanted to make France into a modern parliamentary democracy; he got his revolution, and then the revolution got him. And don’t forget the Irish peasant who turned up his nose at passage to Boston just as the potato plants began to wilt.
Even a 10th grade reading of history will tell you: there are times to be somewhere else. But like the stock market at a top, no bell is rung to tell you when it is time to get out.
Common Dreams:
Demand for Canadian Citizenship Soars as Americans Try to Flee Disastrous Second Term
After the passage of a law that allows people with Canadian ancestry going back generations to apply for citizenship, archivists are also seeing an increase in requests for genealogical records.
According to the Daily Express, Abdul El-Sayed was ahead of the trend:
Michigan Senate hopeful, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, has apparently previously suggested that Americans start going to Canada to achieve the “American dream” during a May 2023 episode of his podcast, America Dissected.
“Economic data shows us that if you want to achieve the American dream, well, you should move to Canada, because it’s twice as likely there. Here, where you start predicts where you end.”
We used to go to Canada in the summers. As the days became miserably sweaty in Baltimore, the family crowded into our Chevy van...and headed for Nova Scotia. There, we were confident that it wouldn’t be too hot.
Not only that, we also were sure that the Canadians would be polite. Even if they really didn’t want to see us coming, they wouldn’t say so. Being ‘nice’ is part of the culture.
But humans are not always nice. They go crazy from time to time. And they turn mean. Ireland under Cromwell...when thousands of Irish children were shipped to the Caribbean where they were worked to death on sugar cane plantations. France during the Revolution...when getting arrested for trying to flee meant the guillotine. Russia, in 1918 came Lenin’s ‘hanging telegram;’ he told the authorities to ‘publicly lynch at least 100 kulaks, rich bastards, known bloodsuckers.’
Americans are not immune. In Massachusetts, upright church-goers became convinced that the devil walked the streets of Salem. Lucifer needed to be crushed out of them — literally. So it was that they put Giles Corey under heavy boards piled high with stones.
Was Corey a wizard...in cahoots with the Devil? He refused to say. And when ‘pressed’ for an answer...
“More weight,” he replied.
It took three days for Corey to die. Had he been in a nicer place, the hale-and-hearty 80-year-old might have lived a decade longer.
“You are writing from France and Ireland,” wrote a dear reader with an objection. “A country is like a spouse. If there is something wrong, you should stay and try to fix it...not run away. You’ve got to stick with your home country. Not turn your back on her.”
This was a strange sentiment for an American; every one of us has ancestors (save those imported as slaves) who ran off. If they hadn’t, we wouldn’t be Americans. Besides, a spouse is not a country. You took your spouse willingly. And you can talk to her. If you have a disagreement, with patience, good faith and perhaps a glass of wine and flowers, you may beg forgiveness and admit that she was right all along.
But you couldn’t sweet talk Stalin. Phytophthora infestans (the potato blight) was not even answering its mail. And by the time the guillotine was rolled into the Tuileries garden, it was too late to get away.
Who knows what the future will bring?
We will keep our papers in order...just in case.
Regards,
Bill Bonner
Nice to see your writing today Bill. During my working years in engineering I spent three years working with a "THE" major auto supplier in Canada. I am sure the average "working" American would NOT want to live in Canada. The medical system is a socialist "JOKE". No deduction for mortgage interest and the prices are no better than in the good old USA. NO THANKS! Plus they won't allow us to keep our guns. Like a good Michigan resident says, "What's mine is mine and you can't have it". Ted Nugent.
Jim Marshall
Talk of escaping to Canada really puzzles me .
As a Canadian I am wishing I was younger so that I could leave the country .
The USA looks to have a lot more freedom and certainly more opportunity .
Canada has become a Third World country run radical leftists whose latest campaign is for speech and thought control .
If you really want to come to Canada have a good look before you leap . We are really very close to becoming a failed nation .