Hundreds of inquiries have been pouring in to a website that's been encouraging Americans to move to Cape Breton if Donald Trump was elected president.
Creator Rob Calabrese says the Cape Breton if Trump Wins website began as a tongue-in-cheek campaign, but it seems many Americans are dead serious about moving away.
"There's a sense of urgency with the contacts,” said Calabrese. “Now people are saying, 'Trump is president, we don't feel safe anymore.'"
Some of the emails are from scared Americans, with others from those simply disappointed. For Calabrese, he’s feeling disbelief.
“Nobody would ever think that we would get to this point,” he said. “But here we are."
Sydney immigration lawyer Damien Barry has been fielding inquiries non-stop since the results came in.
"I think the first thing to note is how quickly it's happened,” he said. “The results have come in and suddenly we're getting emails and phone calls already."
Barry expects they will keep coming for weeks or months.
"The whole presidential election has been pretty hate-filled and I think a lot of people are just looking to leave that toxic environment and move elsewhere," he said.
As a Trump victory became clearer, the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website crashed for a couple of hours. The department has confirmed to CTV News that the outage was due to a surge in people trying to access the site.
As for the Cape Breton if Trump Wins website, Calabrese sees its popularity as a sign of change on the horizon.
"The 'if' is no longer applicable, so I'm open to suggestions on what to name it," he said.
Calabrese will likely keep the website up for as long as Trump is president. He says even if no one ends up actually moving because of it, the international exposure the island received makes it worth keeping.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald.
