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The Night Immigration Canada Website Crashed (This is What Happens When Trump Is Elected…)

On Tuesday, November 8, Canadians were almost an anxious as Americans to know the outcome of this long, endless campaign.

In the evening, Mark didn’t get to watch cartoons as we switched to the live election night special. It felt unfair, so I tried to explain to him what was going on.

“Who is the boss at home?”

“Uh… mommy. And daddy. And Mark?”

“Yes, mommy and daddy. Definitely not Mark. And who is the boss at school?”

“The teacher.”

“That’s right. So, every place has a boss. And right now, America is choosing a new boss. See those two? They are fighting and Americans are choosing who will be the boss of the country.”

“They’re not fighting!” Mark laughed. “They can’t fight! You can’t do that!”

Kids can be so childish, sometimes. Of course, you can fight, be an awful person and be rewarded for that! Gee. Like, learn life, kiddo, grow up.

We practiced voting. Should Mark eat broccoli? Two “yes” and one “no”. Should Mark go to bed? Two “yes” and one “no”. Is mommy gonna get mad if Mark doesn’t go to bed? Three “yes”. Then, I went upstairs to work on an assignment and told Feng to let me know when the first results would come in.

I worked for a couple of hours, checking Twitter for the latest news. “Doesn’t look good for Hilary,” Feng reported.

Indeed, it didn’t.

I could have joined Feng downstairs but for some reason, I stayed on Twitter. I didn’t feel like listening to analysis, explanations or excuses. I didn’t want to hear Trump again. I wanted to see the night unfold in 140 characters or less because really, “WTF” is only three letters and this was all we needed at this stage.

During the night, the website of Citizenship and Immigration Canada crashed. I actually saw a giant spike of traffic on my blog—sorry, Americans, immigrating to Canada is doable but it takes a bit more work than just driving to the border.

My mum and my aunt, both waking up to the news, emailed me.

The stock market crashed.

Eventually, I went to sleep.

I woke up with a headache and a feeling of helplessness.

I remember the night Obama was elected, 8 years ago. The morning after, I had woken up happy and hopeful. Of course, his election didn’t directly impact me as a Canadian but I liked the guy. It wasn’t because he was the first Black president in the White House and it wasn’t so much about specific electoral promise. No, it was mostly because he seemed to be such a smart and positive person it was impossible not to trust him. He was the American dream.

Now we have the American nightmare. Trump. For a start, his name sounds suspiciously like the French verb “tromper”, which means “to mislead”.

I think that’s exactly what he will do.

At one point during the campaign, I stopped being outraged by his idiotic statements. I felt he was doing a one-man show and he would have said anything to be mentioned in the news, to make people talk about him. He just wanted to be offensive and outrageous as he could and I doubt he believes half of what he spat. He was (is?) on a selfish power trip just want to win, to crush his adversary.

I doubt he cares about the American people and I fear that he has no idea what he will do next—wait, the latter is probably a good thing, actually.

I’m angry about the fact he is dividing America. I can’t believe that once again, it will be necessary to assert that minorities are not a threat, that Black people have the same rights as white people, that women aren’t just boobs/ass/vagina, that homosexuals are not freaks of nature, that people who live in poverty aren’t just folks who are too lazy to find a job, that non-consensual sex is never an option, that the America vs. the world rhetoric is useless…

Trump spent months pouring oil on fire and attacking various groups and individuals like a bully. He didn’t offer anything positive or constructive. He just spat his hate.

This is a guy who spent his life having people building him giant towers—hello, Freud?

America deserved so much better…

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Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

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