Blue state blues cure in Canada?

According to NBC News, this might be happening.

I have stated repeatedly (here, here, here, here, here, and here) that

1. I never believed the wild talk about actual secession from the United States for one picosecond, and
2. as to emigration, I would believe that when I saw it reflected in reliable immigration/emigration figures, real-estate market distortions, and the like.

And I remind everybody that the Canadian government's position, about not encouraging Americans to be so quick to leave their country, still stands, and a number of other Canadian commentators feel the same, if the MSNBC report is accurate. In fact, here's a very interesting discrepancy. The MSNBC article mentions those Canadian commentators who, like Ian Robinson, are less than impressed with the liberals wanting to head north (while failing to mention that Ian Robinson's tone is decidedly pro-American, at least as regards Bush's re-election and American actions in the War Against Terror). But the NBC News correspondent did not see fit to mention the "stay-home" sentiment in his TV spot, preferring instead to focus on American commentators saying, "Good riddance!" (Remember, I said that myself.)

I sympathize with Robinson's position; Robinson blames his country's liberal politics and pacifistic foreign policy on the votes of the Vietnam draft evaders who never went back home even when Jimmy Carter granted them wholesale amnesty. Again, if we see a mass emigration of American liberals to Canada, that might provoke an equal immigration of conservative Canadians south. And then you'll have Canada and Jesus Land, all right, just as Der Spiegel predicted--but without any preposterous attempt to realign the border.

That's still a mighty big "if." In fact, NBC interviewed only two American emigres. One of them, Charles Key, is the lineal descendant of the lyricist for our national anthem--and from his remarks, I am 99% confident that he has never read all four of his illustrious ancestor's stanzas. I especially quote:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I see not a word about "diversity and tolerance" there. Today we do have to deal with a band who vauntingly swears that the havoc it has chosen to wreak, a home and a country will leave us no more. And let me reiterate: Their blood will wash out their own footsteps' pollution!

And Charles Key definitely has not read this stanza:

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Triumph again, Mr. Key. And more than that, a direct reference to God and His Direct Role in bringing our nation into being and preserving it through more than two hundred years of history. Take that thought to Canada with you when you go!

Specific stories aside, anecdotal evidence is never sufficient to document a trend. The statistics aren't in yet. Again we hear that people have been hitting the Canadian immigration service' Web site in higher-than-usual numbers since the election, but so far, all we have is talk, plus two interviews with two recent immigrants, and no reliable figures on whether Canada is taking in any more Americans than it always does.

But if the rumors are true--well, I would encourage my fellow Christians, who might be thinking of careers in missions, to look upon Canada as an open mission field, like just about all of Europe. Of course, I consider myself a member of a missionary outpost right here in New Jersey. (If the link is down, that's because we're switching to an in-house Web server and haven't worked all the kinks out of it yet. Keep trying from week to week.) To my fellow conservative Americans, I say: Keep those families strong and, above all, growing. You know that the enemy is weakening if it is talking openly about taking refuge in another land. By such repeated talk they have yielded the tactical advantage. Now's the time to press it.