Newly identified ethnic group migrating north.

Identified as "Dismayed Americans" (Americanus Disgruntulus?) in this CNN article, at least four US citizens ["A husband and wife in Minnesota, a college student in Georgia, a young executive in New York", as the sentence fragment identies them.] are planning to move to the Great White North in order to glom onto "free" healthcare and officially sanctioned gay marriage.

"For me, it's a no-brainer," said Mollie Ingebrand, a puppeteer from Minneapolis who plans to go to Vancouver with her lawyer husband and 2-year-old son.

Oh, dear God. We've already driven most of the mimes north. What are we going to do when all the puppeteers have gone? Who will be left to mock?

"It's the most amazing opportunity I can imagine. To live in a society where there are different priorities in caring for your fellow citizens."

What kind of puppets does she work with, I wonder? I mean, are we talking about full-blown marionettes, or is she climbing into a big latex dinosaur suit or something? Finger puppets? Punch & Judy? Kukla and Ollie? What?

For decades, even while nurturing close ties with the United States, Canadians have often chosen a different path -- establishing universal health care, maintaining ties with Cuba, imposing tough gun control laws.

Saddling Alberta with paying for everyone else's healthcare, supporting that twisted fuck Castro in his quest to keep his entire populace dumb and miserable, and interfering with the rights of their populace to defend themselves. Ahh--paradise.

Two current Canadian initiatives, to decriminalize marijuana and legalize same-sex marriage, have pleased many liberals in the United States and irked conservatives.

I wouldn't say I'm irked, really. Just indifferent and quite glad I don't live there. Skipping a bit.

Mollie Ingebrand, 34, said she has felt an affinity for Canada for many years, fueled partly by respect for its health care system.

Health care pop quiz: which of the following countries recently experienced a serious SARS outbreak:

a) Canada
b) the US

Answer: not the US.

Her doubts about the United States go back even further, to a childhood spent with liberal parents in a relatively conservative part of Ohio.

"In school I was always told this is the best country on earth, and everyone else wants to be American, and that never really rang true to me," she said.

Because your liberal parents told you otherwise?

"As I got older, it occurred to me there were other choices."

Of course there are, you ninny. As long as you don't mind lowering your standard of living.

At Georgia State, Hodges [the college student--K] said some conservative schoolmates have challenged his proposed move to Canada, saying he would be abandoning his homeland.

Conversely, Mollie Ingebrand says some of her friends -- people who share her left-of-center views -- argue that she should stay at home to battle for changes here.

"I've been there and done that," Molly said. "I don't want to stay and fight anymore. I can have that bittersweet love for my country from somewhere else."

Snark. Yeah. Right.