Canada Wants You*
*Especially if you're a doctor or nurse
Greetings from Bangor, Maine, where I am writing from my home office (actually, at the moment, from the couch) after spending the past six days on vacation in Prince Edward Island, Canada. We had a great trip that included some beaches, hikes, lots of Cows ice cream, and time spent tracing part of my wife’s family’s Scottish heritage on the island. Some of her relatives are buried quite literally around the corner from the Anne of Green Gables Heritage House. You just walk through the Haunted Woods and there they are.
Tensions have been high between the United States and Canada over the past two years, at least to the extent that it’s possible to have tensions with a Canadian person — they are all just so nice. But American politics were on our Canadian hosts’ minds, for sure. Several Canadians we spoke with on our trip wanted to talk about Donald Trump, and a couple different people also brought up the recent trials and tribulations of Graham Platner (i.e. “What is going on down there anyway!”).
The Canadians we spoke to were unfailingly welcoming of us, even if they carried some resentments about the policies and statements of the American president. More than one went out of their way to proudly tell us they would normally come to The States periodically for vacations, shopping, or to visit family members, but they mostly all shared a similar version of, “We’re simply not going to come as long as that guy is president.” “We’ll be back in three years,” they said, often with a humble add-on, “If we make it that far.” Come to think of it, I’m not sure if they meant if they would make it three more years, or if the United States would.
Canada Wants You*
America’s losses have been Canada’s gains over the past two years, at least with regard to the movement of people. Scores of Americans have moved north for ideological reasons, or just for a different pace of life. But politics and, sadly, fear, have been a big part of it. I have an LGBT friend a generation older than me who has been scoping out plans to move from Maine to Nova Scotia because she and her partner are afraid of what might come for them if certain political trends continue. There are plenty of anecdotes of people of color here in the United States feeling much safer north of the border than they do here. There is the human side to that, first and foremost, but I also worry that Trump’s current immigration policies and the general climate of disdain for immigrants and people of color is going to cost the United States a generation of entrepreneurs, doctors, scientists, and more.
Canada is trying to take advantage of this by actively recruiting Americans, especially those in certain professions. Last December, a Canadian rule was changed to allow extended citizenship opportunities to those born abroad (including in the United States) who can show they have a Canadian ancestor, and not just one generation back. If your parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, or ancestors even further back were Canadian (and you have documentation to prove it), then the Canadian government considers you to be Canadian, too. In their own plucky way, Canada now simply recognizes all of these Canadian descendants as citizens automatically. People can apply for proof of Canadian citizenship to validate their claims, a process that involves paperwork and documentation of the ancestral link, but those with Canadian ancestry are already considered to be Canadian citizens under the law (they just would not have many true rights as Canadians, such as a passport, ability to work in the country, etc. without going through the proof of citizenship process; the default into being Canadian is kind of symbolic unless you go through the proof of citizenship process).
The rule change opened up the possibility of true, active Canadian citizenship to millions of people. This has sparked significant activity here on the American side of the border, particularly in states like Maine, where huge portions of the population have some Canadian roots. The Bangor Daily News noted recently that genealogists have been especially busy on both sides of the border responding to inquiries for documentation of Canadian ancestry. I’m just guessing here, but I would estimate that at least half of Mainers can trace at least part of their lineage to a Canadian, particularly among our sizeable French-Canadian populations and those like my wife with some Scottish-Canadian roots. I have New Brunswick relatives three generations back on two branches of our family tree, so I think technically under the late 2025 rule-change, maybe we are now Canadians, eh?
There’s a Catch
This week’s article was sparked by a conversation I had on our trip with an old-timer who was mowing the lawn at our AirBNB in Morell, Prince Edward Island, who said they are getting a lot of doctors moving to the United States from Canada. Oh really, I thought. Recruitment and retention of healthcare workers has also been a problem here in Maine, so I was curious about the claim. Sure enough, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence of doctors and nurses moving into Canada. The province of Nova Scotia, for example, claims 33 new American doctors moved there in the year ending March 31, 2026, up from 12 the year before. British Columbia and some of the other more rural provinces boast similar influxes of American medical workers.
Contrary to what I expected, though, from a kneejerk understanding of American migration into Canada, there is actually not some super significant flow of people across the border northward. In fact, according to some statistics, the number of Americans moving into Canada is actually on the decline, while the number of Canadians moving out of the country including to the United States is increasing. The primary motivation? Not necessarily politics or ideology, but economics, as many Canadians are finding they can earn more in the United States and elsewhere than they can in Canada. The same lawnmowing old-timer also told me how hard it was to get started in Prince Edward Island these days — high prices for gas, groceries, and exorbitant real estate prices. “You can’t make it here right now, at least not if you’re young,” he said sadly. We can confirm gas prices are, indeed, really high in Canada right now.
So What is the True Story?
The Canadian government’s immigration policies and procedures are actually much more strategic and calculated than you might think. Rather than be essentially open to all comers, Canada’s platform on immigration is inextricably linked with labor market economics. The country prioritizes high-demand fields and skillsets rather than some more amorphous yet equitable process for open applicants. Healthcare professionals, skilled tradespeople, engineers, software developers, teachers, transportation workers, and French-speaking applicants (almost regardless of field) often receive preferential consideration in the inbound Canadian migration process because those are areas where employers across Canada from British Columbia to the Maritime Provinces are struggling to find enough qualified workers.
What this looks like in practice is that applicants for citizenship or for work permits may get priority spots “in line” if they are a part of one of the highly desired fields of work. Mechanisms have been put in place to expedite applications from people in these key groups. The Canadian government actually has a website set up to rush immigration processes for medical professionals, for example, including the ability to get a work permit processed in just 14 days.
Canada still offers pathways for immigrants from a wide variety of backgrounds including refugees and those fleeing political violence, but the system reflects an intentional economic philosophy that immigration should help solve labor shortages, support the economy, and address demographic challenges such as an aging population by bringing in younger and more technically-skilled workers. Whether one agrees with that approach or not, it is a much more targeted strategy than many people might assume when they think about Canadian immigration.
So Where Does that Leave Us?
I’m going to admit something, which is that when I started writing this week I was preparing to write about how there is this steady flow of Americans into Canada, largely, I assumed, for political and ideological reasons. And there is, indeed, plenty of this happening, such as with my friend who fears for the future in an America that feels increasingly hostile to her and her partner. This is akin to when many Americans left the country in the late 1960s or early 1970s to avoid the Vietnam War or simply because they just couldn’t abide American politics any longer. The movement of Americans across the border to Canada has a similar feel to it today.
But the selectiveness of the Canadian immigration apparatus surprised me when researching it further. For those who are not in a select field of work, the process of immigrating to Canada can be lengthy, frustrating, expensive, and ultimately, unsuccessful. So there is not this huge rush of Americans across the border in part because the Canadian system is not set up in a way that is conducive to free-wheeling inbound migration. I was also surprised by the statistics that just as many people are leaving Canada as are entering.
So in the end, my conclusion is this: politics between the United States and Canada are hot right now, and probably will remain that way for the next 2.5 years, give or take. And despite our interactions this past week with locals who refused to travel to the United States and spend any money here as long as Trump is president, plenty of Canadians are moving here even as many Americans leapfrog them back across the border to the north.
The truth, as usual, is more complicated than the headlines. Yes, some Americans are heading north in search of a political climate that better matches their values or simply for a different way of life or to a place that feels safer and more welcoming. At the same time, plenty of Canadians are looking south or elsewhere for better-paying jobs, more affordable housing, and greater economic opportunity. Politics may influence where people want to live, but economics still has an extraordinary way of influencing where they actually end up. And lastly, although we think of Canada as this progressive expanse much more liberal than the United States, the way their immigration system is set up is much more tactical and calculating than one might think.
Author’s Note
Interested in more Canada content? Check out these articles from The Sunday Morning Post archives:
May 4, 2025: Canada Elects a Banker
April 13, 2025: Travel to the United States Declines
March 9, 2025: It’s Hard to Tariff a Pencil
Ben Sprague lives and works in Bangor, Maine as a Senior V.P./Commercial Lending Officer for Damariscotta-based First National Bank. He previously worked as an investment advisor and graduated from Harvard University in 2006. Ben can be reached at ben.sprague@thefirst.com or bsprague1@gmail.com. Thoughts and opinions here do not represent First National Bank.