Jeff Matthews
Feb 8, 20051 min
The New York Times, in its relentless effort to create the impression that it still contains “all the news that’s fit to print,” as opposed to the reality of the matter, which is that it contains “all the news that a bunch of old, liberal, white men decide is fit to read,” contains a wonderful piece in today’s issue about Americans fleeing to Canada. (‘Some Bush Foes Vote Yet Again, With Their Feet: Canada or Bust’, Page A16 in the New York edition.)
These are Americans disaffected with President Bush’s reelection, and their decision to seek permanent resident status in Canada apparently qualifies for a half-page article, complete with two photographs of said Angry White Liberal Americans. This is in stark contrast to the single photograph accompanying the front page article on the historic and quite groundbreaking Israel-Palestinian cease-fire, the main fault of which may be that an African-American Bush administration official had something to do with it.
Regarding the movement to Canada, the article rehashes the disaffecteds’ concern about the general decline in America as it shifts rightward. However, “we’re still not talking about a huge movement of people,” a Montreal immigration lawyer warns the reporter. “We’re only talking about 18,000 people.”
Still, the Times reporter comments, that is more than double the population of Gettysburg, Pa. As if this somehow makes the numbers matter.
One wonders how many Americans have fled the high-tax boundaries of California to more friendly states, and whether the Times has considered devoting so much ink to that particular diaspora, which is certainly far greater than the angry-white-liberal-flight to Canada. Probably two or three Las Vegases, one might suspect.