http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=4180b6b6-c59e-48ce-97e3-243b2d8239e0&k=25124

Norma Greenaway, CanWest News Service
Published: Monday, July 30, 2007
OTTAWA - The number of Americans admitted to Canada last year hit a 30-year high, fuelling a pattern that suggests the drain of Canadian brains south of the border may be a shrinking phenomenon.

The number of Americans accepted in Canada reached 10,942 in 2006, almost double the number admitted in 2000. By contrast, the number of Canadians admitted to the United States in 2006 dropped sharply from the previous year, falling to 23,913 from 29,930.

The data were gathered and analyzed by the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies. Executive director Jack Jedwab says an analysis of the numbers shows Canada is enjoying an upswing as a preferred destination for Americans, many of whom are increasingly well-educated.

Font: ****That hasn't happened since the early 1970s, when the United States was experiencing political turmoil. From 1970 through 1974, Canada was admitting between about 22,000 and 26,000 Americans a year, many of them draft dodgers from the Vietnam War.

Though the data did not offer reasons for the renewed American interest in Canada, Jedwab pointed to the economic downturn in the U.S. as a top possibility, followed by social and political considerations.

Jedwab also cited a recent Gallup poll that said a whopping 92 per cent of Americans had a favourable view of Canada, making it the top pick among 25 foreign countries listed.

American Laurie McLaughlin puts love at the top of her list of reasons for moving to Canada. She fell for her husband, an academic, while he was doing research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. The couple has been living in Montreal with their young son since 2003, and McLaughlin is on the verge of becoming a Canadian citizen.

"We're settled," the self-employed editor said in an interview. "It feels very comfortable in Montreal."

McLauglin, 47, said she is not surprised more Americans are choosing to live in Canada. After all, she says, many are fed up with an increasing tax burden and a piling up of debt because of the U.S. military adventures in Iraq and elsewhere.

"I have friends in the U.S. who keep saying, "Boy, I'd like to come up there,'" she said, adding that her sister and brother in-law have explored the possibility.

Ditto for American Pamela Chaloult, now vice-president of Vancouver-based Renewal Partners, a seed capital company that invests in socially responsible businesses and organizations.

Lured by excellent jobs, Chaloult and her architect husband moved a year ago to Vancouver from San Francisco where, she says, they could not even dream of being able to buy a house. The one they were renting was on the market for $2.1 million.

"Friends (back home) are asking a lot of questions," said Chaloult. "I keep encouraging people to come."

The couple is ready to buy a house in Vancouver, and they are thinking about getting Canadian citizenship.

Chaloult says she doesn't miss the political and economic stresses that have accompanied the presidency of George W. Bush.

"We really appreciate the community we're in here," she said. "It doesn't hurt to be in a more sane environment."

Jedwab said the data, taken from statistics collected by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration, show that Americans settling in Canada increasingly boast better education credentials. In 2006, 49.5 per cent of American immigrants had a bachelor's degree or better, up from 46 per cent in 2000.

In 2006, 4,498 people were admitted as economic immigrants, which means they need to collect sufficient points to gain entry. This narrowly outpaced the 4,468 immigrants brought in under family-reunification rules.

"Canada is undoubtedly narrowing the brain drain," Jedwab said. "The most educated class of immigrants we're getting right now is coming from the United States."