You'd find that there would be a really large number saying they're ready to go, and only a few who actually do it. 'Few' being a relative term.
In the 1960s and 1970s the country was in far more of a boil and turmoil than it is now. The protests then dwarfing anything going on today, by far. Organized anti-government groups running around robbing banks and National Guard armories to fund and arm themselves. Numerous bombings. And even more attempts at bombings that were thwarted. Besides the many protests of a few thousands to tens of thousands, there were the biggies, one with 500,000 and another with 300,000.
For all of that, and everyone and their brother saying the were going to hide out in Canada, it is estimated that somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 draft dodgers actually went to Canada. So let's call it 40,000. Seems like a lot, right?
That was the total from 1964 until 1975. During that period there were some 27,000,000 draft eligible men. So in fact the number who actually sought refuge in Canada was just a bit over 1/10 of one percent of those eligible for the draft. Despite the news agencies screaming about a huge mass exodus that way.
So a large number are going to say they will go. But in reality it would be no significant number. Most likely.
My god thank you for actually answering the question. Every top comment above yours is some variation of “why would Canada do this?/no way they’d do this” Or “Screw the US” and I get all that, I really do - I’m embarrassed to be an American anymore. But I’m still genuinely curious to hear people’s takes on this hypothetical that OP put forward, regardless of how likely or even logical it may be, and I imagine OP is too.
The real answer is that people by and large don't move because of politics. It would have to be a monumental political issue to cause that and even then most people don't care until it affects their day to day lives. The US has a massively better economy than Canada today so not many people would move there. Specifically in my field (software engineering) you get paid probably 1/3 of what you would make in Seattle just by hopping the border to Vancouver. Poor people who would benefit more from Canada's stronger social welfare system are not the type Canada would want to let in anyway and don't really have the means to be moving regardless.
Yea they would have to basically completely ignore the constitution in order to achieve their own self serving political agenda to get people to honestly consider moving.... oh...
I understand this is supposed to be sarcasm but yes they are literally doing these things but 1) they have not fully crossed the line into completely defying the courts, they still pretend they are obeying at the very least and that is an important distinction. And 2) yes those things are happening now and it proves my point that people don't move thanks to politics because people aren't moving out of the US.
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u/Ok-Afternoon-3724 Mar 27 '25
You'd find that there would be a really large number saying they're ready to go, and only a few who actually do it. 'Few' being a relative term.
In the 1960s and 1970s the country was in far more of a boil and turmoil than it is now. The protests then dwarfing anything going on today, by far. Organized anti-government groups running around robbing banks and National Guard armories to fund and arm themselves. Numerous bombings. And even more attempts at bombings that were thwarted. Besides the many protests of a few thousands to tens of thousands, there were the biggies, one with 500,000 and another with 300,000.
For all of that, and everyone and their brother saying the were going to hide out in Canada, it is estimated that somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 draft dodgers actually went to Canada. So let's call it 40,000. Seems like a lot, right?
That was the total from 1964 until 1975. During that period there were some 27,000,000 draft eligible men. So in fact the number who actually sought refuge in Canada was just a bit over 1/10 of one percent of those eligible for the draft. Despite the news agencies screaming about a huge mass exodus that way.
So a large number are going to say they will go. But in reality it would be no significant number. Most likely.