People are moving to Canada dreaming of a utopia with free healthcare and more tolerance. But the reality is Canada has its own set of problems.

• Some Americans move to Canada in search of less polarized politics and less gun violence.
• People who moved said they also face long waiting lists for healthcare and soaring housing costs.
• "Canada is one of the greatest countries in the world, but it's no utopia," said an immigration lawyer.

Born and raised in the South, Mahlena-Rae Johnson moved to Los Angeles after graduating high school. She spent decades in the city working as a writer, eventually finding a partner and a community of people who made California feel like home.

Johnson, a 42-year-old Black woman, felt a turning point when Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election. She felt it laid bare profound political and ideological divisions within the nation, which resulted a growing intolerance towards non-cisgendered Americans.

In 2018, she and her partner relocated to Canada, seeking what they perceived to be a more politically progressive and secure environment to raise their children.

"I watched videos of people who moved to Canada, and one man who had moved years ago said that he liked living in a place where he knew his country wasn't constantly at war," Johnson told Business Insider. "It is overall a place where I feel safer with my family."

Data shows that Google searches for "moving to Canada" tend to spike after polarizing events, including the 2016 presidential election, the particularly contentious debate between Trump and Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election, and the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

"Usually when there's an election cycle or when people don't like who is elected, Americans in particular want to move to Canada," Michael Niren, the CEO of VisaPlace and an immigration lawyer with over 25 years of experience in Canadian migration, told BI.

A smaller number of Americans actually follow through on their internet dreams and make the move. According to immigration data from the Canadian government, 79,175 Americans applied to be permanent residents in Canada between the first quarter of 2015 and the third quarter of 2023. The data, which does not include temporary, study, or work visas, is a rough barometer of American movers to Canada.

Two Americans who moved to Canada told Business Insider they did so to escape polarized and divisive politics, inadequate healthcare, and to feel safer in their communities. While they said their overall quality of life has improved, they found the grass isn't greener in every arena: There can be long waitlists for medical care, and it's very expensive to buy a home.

One mover said Canada's schools are better, but its free healthcare is still flawed

Johnson, who primarily wanted to escape American politics, discovered some advantages of Canada's schooling system once her two children enrolled.

In LA, she said, "many of the schools are in trailers instead of actual buildings," but in Canada, "children can go to school and not worry about having a place that is safe or not being in an actual building."

Johnson and her family have also enjoyed Canada's universal, publicly funded healthcare system, under which citizens and permanent residents get most medically necessary care and medications for free or very low cost.

There are some frustrations, including that lengthy waiting periods for medical care have gotten longer, she added. "During the pandemic, doctors couldn't see patients as regularly and non-emergency procedures were postponed, so there's a backlog," she said.

Niren, who has lived in both the US and Canada, voiced similar concerns. His own mother, who is needs a hip replacement, has been on a waitlist for 18 months.

"There are people who have to fly to other countries — including the United States — to get cancer treatment because it takes too long," he said. "In the US, you can get a specialist appointment in two days."

Niren also said that Canadians pay elevated taxes to support such a comprehensive healthcare system.

"People call it free healthcare — it's not free," he said. "It's very expensive because you're paying through the taxes."

An American found relief from the US' violence and opioid crises in Canada

Chris Ouellet, 40, left Portland, Oregon, for Victoria, British Columbia, in 2020. It wasn't his first-choice destination, but he ended up finding the peace and safety he was looking for.

He and his partner had planned to move to Wellington, New Zealand, but were unable to because of pandemic border lockdowns. A lot of the characteristics Ouellet was looking for in New Zealand, he said, he found in British Columbia.

"We love the Pacific Northwest, and Canada is not far up the road," Ouellet told Business Insider. "It's very similar weather and they have a lot of the things that we wanted and what we were looking for in New Zealand, which was a lower cost of education, socialized healthcare, and politics that weren't so incredibly polarizing."

Ouellet, who works for the provincial government at the Ministry of Health in British Columbia, spoke glowingly of Portland, but did point out the "pretty bad" violence and opioid crises he witnessed in the US overall. Before Portland, he and his partner lived in Chicago. The violence they would read about or see on their daily commutes prompted them to move west and eventually out of the country altogether.

He hasn't had the same worries in Canada.

"In British Columbia, the regulations for being able to own a gun are extremely tight," he said. "When you're out in public and you hear a noise, no one runs, no one checks over their shoulder, no one thinks that it could possibly be gun violence."

He added that there is still an opioid crisis in British Columbia, but it's not as striking as it is in Portland. Ouellet said that in the three years he's lived in British Columbia, he's seen one syringe on the ground, compared to Portland, where he saw dozens a day.

Ouellet has no regrets about moving to British Columbia, but Canada's housing crisis sidelined his dreams of homeownership.

"The house that we had in Portland was three bedrooms, two and a half baths. It was about 1,800 square feet and we bought it for $265,000. You can't find a place for that price here," he said. "Most condos are around $500,000 to $900,000. Single-family homes are almost a million."

As Niren said, "Canada is one of the greatest countries in the world, but it's no utopia."

Are you an American who moved to Canada? We want to hear from you. Reach out to reporters Alcynna Lloyd at alloyd@businessinsider.com and Jordan Pandy at jpandy@businessinsider.com with your story.