John McCool: Moving to Canada not the answer

So many Americans, despondent with Donald Trump’s win, began searching for ways to immigrate north that Canada’s immigration website actually crashed. But despite the growing interest from many liberal-leaning Americans (and maybe even some Republicans) to move north of the border, they may be shocked to learn that it isn’t so easy to just pick up and move to a foreign country.

In reality, Canada doesn’t need to build a wall to keep out all the Americans. Because while Canada may have an admirable universal health care system, sensible gun laws and a ridiculously popular and handsome Prime Minister, Canada’s immigration system is broken.

Those Americans should have applied to Canada years ago, like I did, if they really wished to immigrate. Because according to Canada’s immigration website (when it was actually running a few days ago), it now takes more than 26 months to process a visa for the spouse of a Canadian citizen who is already living inside the country. That is so far beyond the average length of time in all other developed countries that it’s outrageous. It’s as ridiculous as a building a wall between two countries.

So I’m sorry my fellow Americans, but Canada should have never been their back-up plan for a Trump presidency. Canada has its own problems and its immigration system is one of them. Try Mexico instead.

This story was originally published November 12, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "John McCool: Moving to Canada not the answer."