NEWSFLASH

Offa yahoo:

Americans didn't flock to Canada after Bush win

Canadians can put away those extra welcome mats -- it seems Americans unhappy about the result of last November's presidential election have decided to stay at home after all.

In the days after President Bush won a second term, the number of U.S. citizens visiting Canada's main immigration Web site shot up sixfold, prompting speculation that unhappy Democrats would flock north.

But official statistics show the number of Americans actually applying to live permanently in Canada fell in the six months after the election.
[...]

GASP!!! What? Surely you jest.

Toby Condliffe, who heads the Canadian chapter of Democrats Abroad, did have an explanation of sorts.

"I can only assume the Americans who checked out the Web site subsequently checked out our winter temperatures and further took note that the National Hockey League was being locked out and had second thoughts," he told Reuters.

Yup. That's it. Cold temps and no hockey.
Snopes has a a couple follow-ups on some of the morons who vowed to move there if Bush was elected. I found it quite amuzing:

What happened to those celebrities who had said they'd flee the country? The London Times' Jack Malvern attempted to track them down a few days after Bush's inauguration on 20 January 2001. Alec Baldwin was sticking to his previous denial:

Alec [Baldwin] was busy denying everything. "My wife never heard of Focus magazine and never talked to them," he told the New York Daily News on August 19. Then, on August 20: "Kim [Basinger] did indeed speak to a Focus magazine . . . but my wife and I never said unequivocally that we would leave the country if Bush won. Never."

Robert Altman, who had since re-interpreted his previous remarks, was disinclined to offer further comment:

Second up the gangplank was the film director Robert Altman, the man behind such films as Short Cuts and The Player. "If George Bush gets elected President, I will move back to France," he told reporters at the Cannes film festival. "He's not a very smart man. He's been put up by his father and a bunch of cronies." Despite the fact that this statement was caught on film, Altman later denied making it. He meant to say, he said, that he would move to Paris, Texas, "because the state would be better off if [Bush] is out of it".

When contacted for this article, Altman was no longer inclined to discuss the matter. "Isn't this all getting a little silly?" he asked.
And Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder was disappointed with the election results, but apparently not disappointed enough to make good on his boast:

So far Eddie [Vedder] has only got as far as Hawaii, where, his spokesman explains, he is commiserating by "catching a wave". "He won't be leaving the US but he is extremely disappointed," says Matt Reynolds of Epic Records

Pierre Salinger, at least, reportedly stuck to his guns:

In fact, the only person who has made good on his promise is Pierre Salinger, former press secretary to President Kennedy, who is moving to France.

Yeah, with a quickness.
What a bunch of big mouthed wimps. I guess they figgered that if they didn't, everyone would forget their promises and move on.