Your Guide To Leaving The Country If The Election Doesn’t Turn Out The Way You’d Like

This week, at least two B-list celebrities — Raven-Symone and Al Sharpton — have publicly threatened to leave the United States if Donald Trump (or in Raven-Symone’s case, any Republican) is elected President in November. It’s a sentiment echoed by other Americans, celebrities and regular people alike, who have entertained the idea of leaving the country if the election doesn’t go their way, according to NBC News.

If you’re one of the Americans who believes that a Trump presidency — or a Sanders, Clinton, Rubio, or any-other-candidate-besides-the-one-you-support presidency — is reason to leave the country, you may find that high-tailing it out of The Land of The Free is easier said than done.

Lots Of People Have Threatened To Leave The Country Based On Election Results, But Has Anyone Ever Actually Followed Through?

The idea that Americans, disappointed in the outcome of an election, would leave the country is nothing new. It goes back at least as far as 2000, if not further, when a string of high-profile celebrities, including Martin Sheen, Rosie O’Donnell, Matt Damon, Whoopi Goldberg, Ed Asner, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, threatened to move abroad if George W. Bush got elected, according to Salon. Spoiler Alert: George W. Bush got elected, and all those people are still here.

Has anyone ever actually followed through with a threat to leave if [insert objectionable candidate here] got elected?

As a matter of fact, yes. As The Guardian reported earlier this month, non-celebrity, regular Americans David Drucker and his wife Pam began making plans to move to Canada should George W. Bush be elected over Democrat John Kerry in the run-up to the 2004 election. On that fateful November night when they learned that the election hadn’t gone their way, they stopped talking about moving to Canada and actually moved to Canada. They remain Canadians to this day.

“It’s been a little over a decade now. We have clear eyes about what we did. We have no intention of going back.”

In fact, about 9,000 Americans emigrate to Canada each year, on average, election results notwithstanding. And they go for a variety of reasons including jobs and family, quickly dispelling the notions that “millions” or even “tens of thousands” of disappointed Americans head North in election years. Yes, a few Americans have followed through with threats to leave the country if So-and-So is elected, but it doesn’t happen in large numbers.

So Canada Is The Way To Go, Eh?

At first blush, Canada is the perfect place for a disappointed American to move to if the election doesn’t go their way. They speak the same language (more or less). It’s close by. And, for the moment at least, you can travel between the two countries without a visa, making it much less hassle to come home for Burning Man.

That doesn’t mean that the Canadian government is rolling out the red carpet for Americans to come flooding over its borders. As Forbes noted in 2012 (when disappointed American leftists were threatening to move to Canada if Mitt Romney got elected), moving to Canada is not easy. You have to have a lot of money, a sponsor, and a Canadian job (or job offer) to even get considered.

“Don’t just assume you will be able to cross the border because you don’t like it in the U.S. anymore.”

If Canada Is Out, Then Where Else Should I Look?

If heading North isn’t going to work out for you, have you considered heading South? Mexico doesn’t exactly make it easy for Americans to move there, but, as International Living notes, they hand out retirement visas “liberally,” so if you have a retirement income and don’t mind the risks of living in a country with an astronomically high crime rate, you may find Mexico to your liking.

Other Americans have traveled even further south, to the warm, welcoming land of Costa Rica. With its agreeable climate, friendly people, relatively stable government, and relatively low crime rate, the country is eager to welcome Americans, according to Market Watch, especially Americans with disposable income.

Of course, the downside is that you’ll be thousands of miles from home, in a country where you’ll be expected to learn the language and adapt to the culture.

But, if the prospect of a Trump, Carson, Sander, Clinton, or Whomever presidency means that you’re willing to leave the country rather than live with an objectionable president, then you may just find that it was worth it.

Have you considered leaving the country if the election doesn’t go your way? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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