Avoiding US goods and services – from tech to whisky to air travel – has forced many to find a new way of living
This week the US imposed 50% tariffs on US$20bn (£15bn) of Canadian goods, and Mark Carney, the country’s prime minister, has vowed to match them “dollar for dollar” after the collapse of trade talks between the two countries last weekend. Donald Trump retaliated on Thursday by ordering the federal government to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America.
Such actions have added fuel to a widespread boycott of US products and services by Canadians that began early last year in response to the president’s trade war and threats to annex his northern neighbour.
More than 3,500 people from across Canada shared with the Guardian via an online callout how they have made changes to their lives in response to the US administration’s political and economic stance. Many expressed deep anger and sadness, but remained resolute that this was now a new way of living.
“I think you need to be in Canada to understand how deep the animosity to the US is”
I too have deep animosity for the US, and I live here
You need to be in Canada to understand how deep the animosity to the US is.
same here
If there is one thing US citizens and non-US citizens can agree upon, it’s that the US can fuck right off.
You are free to leave.
Not really though. Other countries don’t take Americans like Americans take others. Funny that.
Well Americans don’t take others any more ether, unless your white and from South Africa or something…
I would, but I can’t just cross the border and declare myself a citizen of another country
So, no, I’m not. I’m kind of stuck here
Trust me, if England or Canada or Australia or Switzerland or France or Germany, etc… said I was free to live there for the rest of my life, I’d start packing my shit tonight
Forget Switzerland. You can’t afford it. Also they are very weird. You know, isolation does things to people.
I taught English in Asia for 10 years. For most countries, you just need to have an employable skill they need (Canada in particular likes tech workers, China, Vietnam and South Korea love oral English teachers, as do many Middle East countries like the UAE or even Turkey). Or, if you have a decent enough pension check, they’ll let you move right in and grant you residency. So no, you’re not “stuck” here. Your brain might be “stuck”, but you certainly aren’t. As well, you can set up a joint-venture business with a citizen of a different nation, and your business visa can be converted to a residence visa if the venture proves successful.
And a big thanks to the downvoters – always finding reasons to hate!
My age is a bit of a factor
I also have a family so it’s not just me
I’ve looked. Nothing too crazy but I’ve explored the idea of getting my child out of a part of the world where people think teachers should have guns
I met plenty of people who were older, married, with kids who taught English overseas. No different than teaching here (except for the food, which in many cases was better than here!). Seriously.
But you are clearly writing over-generalization checks that life refuses to cash. SOME Americans think teachers should have guns, and they have their reasons. MOST Americans don’t want guns in the classrooms for obvious reasons. Everyone has a right to their beliefs and opinions. Nobody deserves to be generalized or compartmentalized into a group. You just did both.
Personally, I think you’re converting your own lack of follow-through for your own family’s future into misplaced contempt for a nation that (unlike most) will actually allow you to leave. You said earlier that you can’t just “show up and be a citizen” in other countries (because they have rules), and tried to blame America for it. Then, when I showed you that you could, you said “it’s not for me” and then expressed even more contempt for the country I just gave you a way out of.
Grow up. Quit bitching.
I’m trying to go to England, not Singapore. Pretty sure they don’t need Americans to teach the English how to speak English
Don’t tell them that, they likely think that they do. They also seem to think a temp job overseas is the same as emigrating.
10 years in-country is a bit different than a temp job. You clearly have never been anywhere. But nice try, trollbot!
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I never said anything about Singapore so please quit lying and putting words in my mouth I never said (although I did date an incredible girl from there, I just liked Malaysia better). And as Singapore was an English colony (prior to the American colonies), they already speak English better than you and I ever will.
Are you really trying to blame America because England spoke English before America even existed? Just wow…
YOU CAN NOT LEAVE AMERICA AND DENOUNCE YOUR CITIZENSHIP, STOP PAYING TAXES WHILE ABROAD (a thing unique to the states), OR BECOME NOT AN AMERICAN WITHOUT BECOMING STATELESS.
Saying you are “free to leave” is not really telling the whole story now is it? The fact that we need it in all caps might just get the concept though.
I have never understood this idea since no you are not.
Its a bit harder to emigrate then us people seem to think, less so without skills in demand (and lets face it americans are not super well known for being good workers these days).
I’ve spend decades working overseas. I’ve taught English, I’ve worked offshore oil, I was even involved in a few Sino-American joint ventures during my stint in China.
And I’ll show you plenty of Americans busting their asses working two jobs (and doing gig work on the side) to keep a roof over their (and their childrens) heads. Rent ain’t free in America, neither is the food, you gotta work to pay for it. And if an employer thinks you’re not cutting the mustard, this ain’t England or Canada, they can just lay you off on the spot. Because underperformance counts as a cost cut. So please, keep you BS opinions on “American laziness” to yourself. Frankly, outside of government workers, I don’t know any adult that isn’t busting their ass right now to stay afloat.
HA HA HA HA.
Oh shit you are serious!
England still has legal requirements for companies to address government before they commence a layoff, and Canada still puts the Queen on their money.
Yes, I am serious.
And? What does that have to do with paying taxes as an ex pat from the states? You are a pariah state, and also have to notify the government about layoffs (its called WARN). Oh but please brag more about how shit your nation is, I am sure I will be humbled into compliance.
I thought we were talking about whether Canada and the UK can fire people at will like in the US…
As someone that has fired people in Canada both with and without cause (layoff), the call out is funny. We are a real nation that does not have the “right to work” us bullshit.
I am glad we don’t, its not even hard to work with as an employer. This whole thing is about this other dood saying that americans are more hireable in other nations and that americans can just leave if they don’t like it there. (They can not).
Actually if you take a gander at the whole thing this firing statement was just an aside.
I live in the States now (have since 2013). And here’s what’ll blow you mind about me –
Passport stolen in Cambodia while I was teaching English there. Can’t bank or leave there without one, can’t get a job, can’t receive money via Western Union (even if I’d had family willing to send the stuff), can’t do anything but go hungry and learn to live like most Cambodians actually do. I walked the Mekong to South Vietnam entirely, made friends I still talk to, and survived. The US Embassy wouldn’t do squat for me because I didn’t have my birth certificate. It wasn’t until I almost died that I was finally repatriated. And when I finally was, I landed at LAX in the middle of December in 30F weather wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, t-shirt, and bamboo flip-flops. No shit. No job. No home. No family. Homeless and cold.
So I hitchhiked. To Florida. Hitchhiked back to Southern California (twice) for my birth certificate, when you’re homeless your documents are the first thing that gets stolen. I took odd jobs, worked a summer season at Yellowstone National Park, hitchhiked a few more years, got into offshore oil and gas, then started falling down (without the benefit of being drunk!). Eventually got on Medicaid (took forever), got an MRI (or four), and was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and CES. So game over for me on the labor front. Or just about anything that requires lifting, standing, or even most sedentary work.
So I spent several more years homeless and hitchhiking. I’m heading to Texas next week, still fighting a VA PTSD claim and an SSI disability claim. I finally have a lawyer for both. Hitchhiking introduced me to offshore work, and then later house-sitting work once I couldn’t do that anymore. I now have cash clients in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Colorado and Montana. All obtained while homeless. And in the process, I went from no address and no credit to 5 major credit cards and a high-700 FICO score.
So if anyone here should bitch about their circumstances, it’s me. America is not perfect. But I don’t need permission to go work in a different city or state, I can vote, I can just decide I don’t like it here and leave. And go anywhere I want minus the real pariah states like North Korea, Russia, Syria or Iran.
I went from 110 pounds (I’m 5’9") when I left Cambodia to 165 pounds today. Credit cards, house sittings, and hopefully a safety net that will eventually come through.
Most countries don’t have half that.
Is America perfect? No. But it (and its people) are not near as bad as the idiots in this thread are pretending it to be.
If it were that bad, I would have left again years ago. I stay for a reason. And that reason is because it’s genuinely better than the 16 other countries I’ve lived in.
Have a nice day!
PS – The WARN act you mentioned is only for companies that have 100+ workers (a tiny fraction of American employers) and does not require the employer to get government approval before laying off. So please take you misdirection and misrepresentations elsewhere. Nobody likes straw man arguments. They just make you look like a liar.
So why the hell are you telling people that they can just leave easy? Come now, even your tale paints a fucking nightmare. You even describe the very issue with an american living outside of america (mostly the us sucks in and out of the usa). Did you know most places also let you move around freely inside of the nation? Hell I have done it twice in my life here in Canada, and its not something to brag about. This is a big issue with americans, your damn exceptionalism because most countries have a fuck lot more then half that. You are living in a shit nation throwing shit at other nations.
You don’t get to tell people fables and then tell them to “grow up” due to your situation being shit, it makes zero sense.
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