If Trump Wins I'm Marrying A Canadian

Ever since it started looking like Donald Trump would win the Republican nomination, people have began joking about moving to Canada. Increasingly however, it appears that people may not be joking. A few months ago, a radio station in Cape Breton suggested that Americans worried about a Trump presidency should consider moving to Cape Breton. Listeners were intrigued. In fact, the station's website has received more than 1.5 million visitors since it launched its "Cape Breton If Trump Wins" campaign. Moreover, this is not an isolated incident. Interest in Canadian immigration is growing. The day after Trump swept the super Tuesday primaries Americans searching for immigration information crashed the  Canadian government's immigration website.

Nevertheless, despite the increasing interest, immigrating to Canada is far from simple. Potential immigrants with job offers already lined up have the easiest time but immigrants who simply want to flee Trump may not have the skills or technical expertise to procure these types of job offers. Immigrants without a job offer must then show that they have at least $10,000 in savings. This money is needed to demonstrate they will be able to support themselves while looking for a job. Still, even this is not enough.  Canada has immigration quotas (although they are much less rigid than the United State's) and these limit the number of potential immigrants who may enter the country. Moreover,  since Canada has committed itself to accepting thousands of Syrian refugees, the numbers of economic immigrants it will  accept has signifciantly decreased. As a  result, immigrating to Canada is not nearly as  simple as packing one's  bags and driving to the border. A new company "Maple Matches," is trying to change that. According to Maple Matches, the solution to this  immigration problem is mail-order marriage.

Maple Matches is a dating website that promises to match Americans fleeing Trump with lonely Canadians looking for love. According to the company's CEO, more than 10,000 singles, including more than 2,500 Canadians have already signed up for the site. For Americans looking to move to Canada, marriage to a Canadian may be their best chance and Maple Matches is clearly capitalizing on this aspect of Canadian immigration law.

Maple Matches is a unique mail-order bride company  in that the potential mail-order brides and husbands are American. Nevertheless,  the matches it intends to create are similar to most modern mail-order marriages. These are arrangements where the promise of citizenship and opportunity  is offered in exchange for the promise of a spouse. Many Americans are uncomfortable with these types of arrangements and often believe they are examples of  marriage fraud.  This is understandable. As Maple Matches readily admits, one of the main purposes of their site is to help otherwise ineligible or low priority Americans immigrate to Canada.

From the American spouse's  standpoint, the site is about immigration, not love. Still, this does not make a "Maple Match" marriage fraud. It is a common misperception that marrying for citizenship rather than love, is automatically marriage fraud.  Marriage fraud only occurs when at least one of the parties weds with no intention of establishing a life with the other person. On the other hand, if the pair lives together as a married couple, sharing both the joys and difficulties of married life, then the fact that the marriage was based on both parties receiving a mutual benefit does not make it any less valid than a love match. 

Marrying for love is wonderful, but it is not required. In fact, for most of history, love matches were rare. Maple Matches seeks to pair lonely Canadians with fleeing Americans. These pairing may or may not beget love matches yet, the arrangement has the potential to create real, beneficial marriages. I doubt Maple Matches  will spur a huge exodus to Canada, but it'll be interesting to watch.