A disc jockey at Cape Breton radio station The Giant 101.9 in Nova Scotia, Rob Calabrese, just invited Americans to move to Cape Breton Island if they want to flee the United States due to GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump winning the race. The Sydney, Nova Scotia, radio host launched a website on Monday to coincide with Presidents Day in the United States. The website is called Cape Breton if Donald Trump wins.
Calabrese, a 39-year-old resident of the island, created the website to promote Cape Breton, reports Time, and said he never expected it would get this much attention, but his offer was serious.
"Every American election, you have a group of people - usually Democrats - who say, 'That's it, I'm moving to Canada' if a Republican wins. Hey, if you're going to move to Canada, why not move to Cape Breton?"
On the tongue-in-cheek website, Calabrese urges Americans: "Don't wait until Donald Trump is elected president to find somewhere else to live!"
He took aim at Trump's plan to build a wall along the Mexican border, according to CBC News, joking that in Cape Breton "the only 'walls' are holding up the roofs of our extremely affordable houses."
Calabrese said he's no fan of Trump, calling him "a scary possibility."
"How he is able to inflame people and move people. I definitely wouldn't want him as the leader of my country," stated the radio broadcaster.
Calabrese put the website together in just a few hours, and has been pleasantly surprised by the reaction. "Since we launched, it's really taken off. I've been contacted a lot by people who appear to be earnestly asking about moving here."
He said he's heard from a professor at Cornell University, among others.
"They're asking genuine questions about things like the immigration process, the economics. It's [his invitation] been taken seriously by some people, which is great and not intended, but I'm going to help them out as best I can."
Calabrese wants Americans to know the weather in Nova Scotia isn't that different from much of the northeastern United States.
He also touted health benefits. "If you have a baby, you get paid leave for almost a year," he adds. "If you cut your hand, you can go to the doctor and get stitched up for free."
Tourism office staffers for Cape Breton Island saw an unprecedented surge of interest since the site launched on Monday. Mary Tulle, CEO of Destination Cape Breton, told CNN Money that by Friday they had received 50,000 U.S. inquiries on their web site in that time, which exceeds all of the traffic they got from the U.S. last year.
Calabrese told Time he received more than 2,000 responses from mostly Americans this week. He said he was surprised about the number of genuine inquiries about starting a life on the island. He made changes to the site on Friday, toning down the references to specific policies.
