Originally published at: With election of "K-Trump," South Koreans consider moving to Canada | Boing Boing
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Yeah, well if they move to Ontario they won’t find leadership is much different from where they left. If I’m not mistaken some other provinces have similarly 45-like premiers. Choose your province carefully!
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As a Canadian living in Canada, I would suggest that our South Korean neighbours should fix their own homeland problems, rather than contemplating an escape to Canada. We have a fairly stringent immigration policy, and our own problems to deal with; we don’t need malcontents from other countries, no matter how sympathetic we are to their cause.
If you want to emigrate to Canada, I’d suggest it be because you want to be here, rather than because you want to abandon your homeland.
Edit to adjust emphasis.
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In all fairness the climate in Canada is milder than Korea, they have fewer neighboring countries threatening to fire rockets/artillery at major cities, and the best healthcare system in the world.
Why wouldn’t they want to go there? I want to go there. But my work confines me to the NYC metro area.
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Ford has had to move significantly to the centre to save his political career. It will be interesting to see what happens there post pandemic, but he has become more pragmatic.
The federal Conservatives look set to choose their most reactionary leader yet, but his chances of leading the party to victory in the next election are slim. Never say never though.
Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick however…
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I’d have expected a Canadian living in Canada to have some idea where the Canadians actually came from. Except for the Natives, it is a country made up of immigrants, and not them all of them who were happy at home but just loved the idea of the frozen undeveloped wilderness that much more. You’d think you’d at least know the loyalists, American “malcontents” who helped populate Upper Canada, if not the more recent waves.
What a shame to see their successors be so much less welcoming, the same stupid ideology sweeping the world of "we only want our kind of people" that has led to Trump and Orban and Brexit and so much other suffering.
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While I wouldn’t call them malcontents, I agree that ceding your homeland to reactionary populists/fascists is not going to solve anything. And when held against what is happening in places like Syria or Ukraine, it hardly seems a reason to run.
That said, I welcome anyone who wants to help build Canada into a free, tolerant and diverse country
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And Modi and Bolsonaro and Johnson and LePen and so so many more. Fascism is on the march everywhere. I am not convinced there is any place to run, truly.
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It is. I picked three where the movement very clearly started with not wanting to let outsiders in…it’s no coincidence they picked up right around when there were so many Syrians in desperate need of homes. I don’t know as much about the others though I would not be surprised.
We’ve all seen what gatekeeping does to fandom. It’s not less toxic when it’s mixed with nationalism. If someone really thinks their country was great, they should be happy to share it. Instead people keep burning their own homes to the ground to keep others from moving in.
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I’m sure your attitude to them will be enough to put them off.
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There was a time when they would have been talking about moving to the U.S. to escape tyranny. Those days are long past.
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Well, that’s different, as the “proper” kind of Canadians came from Europe, and everyone knows that Europeans belong everywhere… /s
Well, “real Canadians” 
just don’t want to be overrun by people who can’t assimilate… /s
If anything, it’s more toxic as it’s over something more “real”, which is national identity (hint: it’s not).
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Since the cause that’s creating their lack of contentment with their birth country is the preservation and furtherance of liberal democracy in the face of growing authoritarianism, one might argue that Canada (an immigrant nation) very much does need such “malcontents” dedicated to that cause.
After all, Canada isn’t exactly free of right-wing sado-populists either. But look who I’m telling that to!
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Wait, “our country is starting to suck and I’d like to move to a better one that reflects my values” gets the label of a “malcontent” now?
As a Canadian with both Aboriginal and Immigrant bloodlines, I welcome anyone who wants to come to Canada because they wish to help us continue to reinforce our values and priorities, and promise not to call them bad names for wanting to do so.
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Depending on which regions you’re comparing that may be true in some instances but definitely not in others. Even forgetting about some of the Northern regions of Canada that are anything but mild, there are plenty of places in Korea with warmer weather than Vancouver or Winnipeg.
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Clearly, not all Canadians.
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I’m another one. My ancestors came here looking for a better life (just like yours) and I welcome any newcomers who value the country they built. I’m proud that our country has a reputation abroad as a free and fair society.
We have our problems, of course, such as creeping white supremacy and know-nothing anti-immigrant types, but discouraging new immigrants is quite obviously the wrong way to deal with them.
What do you mean by that? Of course they want to be here. That’s why they consider immigrating. Very few people abandon their homeland on a whim. They do it because conditions there have become intolerable.
Women who are alarmed by the increasingly anti-feminist rhetoric are not “malcontents”.
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Pretty much why everyone who might want to move there wants to move there.
There are lots of places it’s easier to move.
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You know, growing up I was taught being welcoming was Canada’s whole deal. I certainly don’t really know how else it stands out. It is full of wonderful art and music and culture, but that’s everywhere with people to create them. It looks after its citizens with social programs that put the US to shame, but so do all the other developed countries, and the Scandinavian ones do it much better.
But those countries are fairly clearly for Scandinavians. The US is a melting pot. Canada was taught as a mosaic, a place where people from all over each brought something different and contributed to a diverse and spectacular whole.
Of course that was just left-wing wishful thinking. Instead we get this attitude that Canada is for Canadians as defined by whatever immigrants happened to show up before the speaker’s family, and generally setting aside BIPOC. Anyone else should be someone who fits with their values…which don’t include diversity and being welcoming, so apparently mean things like oil sands and mass schoolchildren graves. It’s so exhausting and depressing.
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