If I hadn’t been born, my parents would be living in Ottawa or Toronto, singing “O, Canada” at weekend hockey games.

At least that is what my mother says every time she relates the story of my birth — a story about my hippie parents and their anger with the politics of the 1960s.

Their disgust with the Vietnam War and the strong possibility that my father would be drafted had them seriously considering a move to the north border.

The joke is my birth in 1968 was the sole reason my father never went to war and my parents never headed to the frigid north to live. The truth I would later discover is that my father received a student draft deferment at the same time my mother discovered she was pregnant. Whether I had anything to do with keeping my parents in South Carolina is difficult to know.

My parents probably would have never made it past North Carolina if it had come down to it.

If they had decided to make a break for it, my parents would have joined nearly 240,000 Americans who moved to Canada between 1966 to 1975.

According to Statistics Canada, moving to Canada reached its peak in 1974 when more than 27,000 Americans crossed the border.

More than 40 years later, Americans disgusted with the state of politics in America are once again exploring Canada as a place to live.

Google reports that searches for the phrase “how can I move to Canada” surged 350 percent the night the results for Super Tuesday were announced.

Rob Calabrese, a local radio personality in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, says if you are traveling north why not give his North Atlantic island a try.

“Hi Americans, Donald Trump may become the next president of your country,” he writes. “Don’t wait until Election Day to find somewhere else to live! … Start now — that way, on Election Day, you just hop on a bus to start your new life in Cape Breton, where women can get abortions, Muslim people can roam freely and the only ‘walls’ are holding up the roofs of our extremely affordable houses.”

At first it was joke — a stunt that netted 800,000 clicks on his website in two weeks.

“As soon as I started getting serious inquiries, then all of a sudden the joke is over and this is serious,” Calabrese told CNN. “People are showing a serious interest in moving here.”

Moving to Canada has not been a subject at the Hillyer family dinner table, but the subject has been discussed among colleagues who jokingly admit to talking about a move to Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico if the ballot in November lists Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders as the Republican and Democratic choices for the next president of the United States.

The possibility of such a ballot hasn’t fully registered in my mind. As a voter who tends to sit squarely in the center politically, neither Trump or Sanders are satisfactory.

But I am still calm. Reality hasn’t reached the point where I have considered packing my bags and heading north, like my parents did in 1968.

I doubt that will change whatever the results are in November.

Even still, the photographs of Cape Breton looks mighty tempting. I might have to visit.

 

Ben Hillyer is the news editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3540 or by email at ben.hillyer@natchezdemocrat.com.