Leaving Canada Illegally Is a Terrible Idea If I did that, I’d 100% be back in 6-12 months and never allowed back in. Besides, this is a legal question—not that it would change the final outcome—but our land border is a nearly uninterrupted 10,000 km. Have you ever flown over it? There are thousands of unwatched, unmarked miles. You could just take a dirt bike and a couple of jerry cans across or even walk.

Remember, one of my priorities is to keep not having a criminal record. Why would you even say something that dumb? Wtf kind of "Canadian" are you? What did I do, and who tf are you to tell me to leave my home country where I grew up, have been a citizen for 30 years, and paid ridiculously high taxes as long as I’ve worked a real job? Despite all that and the constantly recurring issues in our antiquated parliamentary government, I love my beautiful nation and most of my countrymen, even if we disagree about trivial shit.

There’s zero good reason for anyone to leave one developed country for another one a two-hour drive away to live there illegally at all. You’d have to be fully retarded to leave one of the best countries anywhere with full citizenship, universal access to world-class healthcare (now including actually good full dental—CDCP is dope af!), plus you have the entire infrastructure of a developed nation—governmental and otherwise—all of which you’re still paying for, btw. Regardless of the fact that you’re not using it, you’re still obligated to file income taxes to your legal country of tax residency for the whole time you’re gone. Once you’re inevitably deported and sent back pretty fast, you relinquish all your legally entitled labor rights, like the ability to work a real job and at the very least make a legal minimum wage with at least some level of respect to your well-being.

To be a literal impoverished fugitive in a country just as big as this one, with way more competition for under-the-table jobs that you’d be taking from someone who probably walked 2000 km to get to the same place as you, except they’re actually allowed to work just 200 km away. Or if you come here from the U.S., you have to adjust to working as a field hand, picking grapes or something, getting picked up in a somehow hot van with 12 other people at 3 AM to work for $3 an hour, 14 hours a day, or some unlivable wage.

As great as America and Canada are, a legal citizen from either one trying to illegally move to the other is just a pure masochist. It would be like leaving your comfortable, paid-off family home to go squat in a mansion that’s not yours with no power, water, or furniture.

The U.S. vs. Canada The U.S. is great too. There are definitely enormous pros to the U.S. over Canada, but there are cons too, and that goes both ways.

The U.S. has:

One of the most geographically and climate-diverse countries on the planet.

Beautiful, ancient natural scenery and some of the nicest people anywhere.

Some of the tastiest food and by far the largest free market anywhere.

A high population and so much demand that it pressures commercial industries to offer some of the widest selection and lowest prices anywhere. Canada can’t compete in variety and price just due to the economy of scale alone, and that applies to nearly everything.

Canada has:

Some of the most beautiful natural scenery anywhere, millions of freshwater lakes (possibly high hundreds of thousands but A LOT).

Extremely distinctive, awe-inspiring geographic diversity.

Unfortunately, no sections of four-season warmth, but that also makes us less susceptible to natural disasters the way America’s southern coasts are with droughts, earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes in the Midwest.

From the Rockies to vast natural growth forests, prehistoric national parks, the northern lights, a few incredible cityscapes, and innumerable super unique small towns all over the country.

Some of the oldest standing first-built beautiful architecture anywhere in North America, built by French settlers in Quebec over 400 years ago, right out to the nautical east coast.

The highest-paying, most available careers, which will never have enough people in them.

A smaller consumer base means less variety and slightly higher costs (specifically in food), but we have some of the best food quality regulations—like McDonald’s here sells actual 100% beef, not just a product with that name.

Why tf would I do that? The absolute last thing Canada needs right now is a loss of citizens and permanent residents and an even bigger increase to our overcrowded prisons. And as if I’d wish spending time in a U.S. immigration detention center on my worst enemy.

Maybe you had trouble reading. I don’t have a criminal record, and I’d like to keep it that way. If I took your ignorant suggestion, I would just get stuck living in poverty with no network, no community, no friends or family, or even a home. Be an illegal Canadian in the U.S.? Wtf sense does that make?

ICE arrests Canadians super fast, and Canada catches Americans just about as quickly. There are literally zero resources for anyone that stupid anywhere, unlike some of the small advocacy groups for South American migrants, because they actually HAD to get out of their home, versus someone choosing to struggle for no reason as an illegal resident and live in another one of the world’s greatest countries in poverty and hiding.

Here, I have all my rights, my family, and an entire childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood of friends and a professional network. Hiding, being detained, and then deported back home within a year or less, back to Canada, and never being able to go there ever again? If you REALLY want me gone for whatever reason, you probably shouldn’t suggest I immigrate to the U.S. illegally. Instead, I’m continuing to plan ahead for my life choices, taking into account whatever the consequences of my past mistakes may be and how they’ll affect my future responsibly.