‘Feels kind of hopeless’: Here’s why some Americans are looking to move to Canada

Canada has approved 70,330 permanent residence applications from the U.S. since the end of 2014, including 5,040 in the first five months of 2022 alone.

It’s not just the relentless parade of deadly mass shootings, the draconian assault on abortion rights or even the prospect of a Donald Trump comeback that has Mackenzie Fresquez exploring a move to Canada.

Rather, it’s the abiding sense that in the United States, a country that’s supposed to revere Abraham Lincoln’s government of, by and for the people, she’s powerless to do anything about it.

“It really just feels kind of hopeless,” said Fresquez, 29, who lives in the Denver suburb of Lakewood with her husband, Isaac.

Both are keen outdoor enthusiasts who work as land surveyors in Colorado, where Fresquez moved from Ohio so she could frolic in the shadows of her beloved Rocky Mountains and one day start a family.

But sending children to school in the U.S. no longer seems like a good idea, she said — and there’s no reason to think that’s going to change.

“Even if we elect all the right people — which, even that takes a lot in a country that’s so divided — it’s just how our government is set up and how it’s running right now,” Fresquez said.

“It just feels like there’s nothing really I can do, even if I do go full-bore activist and get everyone to go vote — I don’t really know if it would change that much.”

Her adopted home has a dark history of mass shootings: Littleton, home to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, is nearby, as is Aurora, where a gunman killed 12 people at a midnight movie premiere a decade ago.