- Grace Hern, 36, moved to Canada in 2023 to continue her higher education and escape American policy.
- She hopes to pave her friends and family to try Canada too.
- The growing exhibitions of Canada nationalism make it aware of being an American who lives there.
This also filed test is based on a conversation with Grace Hern, a 36 -year -old office assistant who moved from Milwaukee in the Grand Toronto region with her husband in September 2023. The conversation was published for length and clarity.
When people asked me, “Why did you move?” I had to answer: “I’m a little afraid of what my country could do.”
Wisconsin is really progressive now, but it is a purple state. So what I felt was: “What if anyone takes over and just begins to break the laws? And if someone ignores the person I want in power and that the laws change all?”
The last straw was when Roe c. Wade was overthrown. We thought: let’s move on to a country where I can get health care for my whole body, not just most.
When I started telling my friends that I was moving to Canada, they said to themselves: “Maybe we should think about it too.” It surprised me a little. I thought it was an extreme decision, that it was a little crazy, but everyone I spoke to was like “huh, I wonder if it is possible for me.”
I continue to encourage people to get their passport in order and visit – I will show you and tell you what it is to immigrate. I would like to be this springboard if they need it.
I thought that a student visa would be my best bet to enter Canada
My husband and I was very lucky to have saved enough money so that we can take the plunge. We were very lucky that our jobs did not have linked us to Milwaukee. We were very lucky that we never bought a house in Milwaukee, so we were not really financially or legally linked in the way some of my friends and my family are.
Now I am in the region of the Grand Toronto, between Toronto and Stratford. With traffic, it would be about two and a half hours at three hours outside Toronto.
Everyone says that I moved “to the north”, but, in fact, I moved east, through the lakes. When we talk to our parents, they tell us that it is snowing, then we get snow two days later.
I went for a graduate Program that only lasts a year. I thought that if it made our visas much faster, it would make things a little easier. I also wanted to make income as a teaching assistant. Then my husband obtained a work visa. Immediately after graduating, I had to request a third -cycle work visa.
My partner and I are married to facilitate our visas. I have been with my partner for almost 13 years and we had never signed paper. When we wanted to move countries, we said to ourselves: “We will better make this legally official so that we can cross a border more easily.”
The accommodation is expensive everywhere and difficult to find
Jobs and accommodation are rare.
There are many housing scams. We went with one of the two apartments we saw with our eyes and met the owner. We said to ourselves, “I guess we have to go with one these two that we have really seen because we know that it is not a scam.”
The only reason for which our accommodation is safe now is that I made friends who were like: “My aunt has a house. You can live in the basement and I will live on the first floor.” I was lucky. He has no air conditioning, but it’s ok because it’s in a basement. It is a little smaller and more expensive than my place in Milwaukee.
Our last apartment in Milwaukee was $ 1,200 a month for a two-bedroom bedroom in fact spacious with a living room, a dining room, a full kitchen, a small backyard and a parking.
Now I spend $ 1,800 in Canadian dollars (or about $ 1,258).
Our first very small apartment in Canada was $ 2,040 Canadian dollars (or about $ 1,422) per month. It was listed like two bedrooms, but that was not really the case – and we had to pay for a storage unit when we arrived here.
I don’t know exactly where I’m with the Canadians right now
The Canadians I know right now will look at their phones, reading the news on the prices and will be like: “Oh my god, have you heard how crazy?” I’m going to ask, “Oh no, what happened now?” And they are like: “I can’t buy orange juice.”
Due to the prices, we will put small red maple leaves on everything if it is made in Canada.
Everyone becomes quite nationalist, at least in their economic choices. People put flags on their lawns and their cars, and they all buy Canadian.
The course of flags already makes me anxious because in 2016, when all the American flags came out, it tended to be a very white nationalist thing.
My big question is: when you lay your Canadian flag, does it include all international students? Does it include the Indian grocery store at the bottom of the street? Does it include all your immigrants? There is a feeling that the owners of flags would say: “Yes, of course it is.”
In February 2025, Canada announced a series of border security efforts to avoid prices included in the United States. Artur Widak / Nurphoto via Getty Images
I know that the Canadian flag is not the American flag, and the American flag on your truck is something different from that of the Canadian flag of your truck. But there are similarities.
I would just like to know with certainty that someone who steals his Canadian flag really wants to include everyone living in their country because that’s not what the flag flight meant at home, so it makes me a little nervous.
There is also a social element, where Canadians are more polite and the Americans are more friendly. Especially now, it’s really weird to understand where you are with Canadians. They will always tell you the polished thing.
I didn’t really feel a change in the way people treat me personally. Although I still have Wisconsin registration plates on my car, people asked me: “Are you worried about being vandalized?” I say to myself, “No, should I be?”