Google searches for “move to Canada” in the US spiked Tuesday night as Donald Trump racked up victories in the Super Tuesday primaries.
Variations on “how can I move to Canada” were up 1,500% at one point as Trump won the Republican primaries in seven of 11 states. Searches spiked each time a state was called for the mogul-slash-reality TV personality whose buffoonish bigotry has inspired and terrified US voters.
Contrary to media reports, delays on the Canadian government’s website Tuesday and Wednesday were not the result of crushing traffic from prospective US immigrants. The delay notice was for an unrelated technical problem, a government spokesman told Quartz.
US interest in Canadian immigration during election season is not new. Searches on the topic skyrocketed in the wake of George W. Bush’s re-election.
While most of these searches don’t result in people actually moving—see the classic 2000 Onion story, “Man Who Threatened to Move to Canada Before Election Still Here”—Canada’s official immigration figures show that some dedicated objectors sometimes make good on their interest.
New Canadian permanent residents from the US have gone up slightly the year after every presidential election since 2000 (except for 2009, the year after President Barack Obama took office, when we were all riding high on hope and change). US immigration to Canada rose steadily throughout the Bush presidency, and declined throughout Obama’s first term.