Brett Kelman
Last month, Justin and Amy Miller packed their automobiles with three youngsters, two canine, a pet bearded dragon, and no matter belongings they might match, then drove 2,000 miles from Wisconsin to British Columbia to depart President Donald Trump’s America.
The Millers resettled on Vancouver Island, their scenic refuge accessible solely by ferry or aircraft. Justin went to work within the emergency room at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, the place he turned certainly one of no less than 20 U.S.-trained nurses employed since April.
Fear of Trump, a few of the nurses mentioned, was why they left.
“There are so many like-minded people out there,” mentioned Justin, who now works elbow to elbow with Americans in Canada. “You aren’t trapped. You don’t have to stay. Health care workers are welcomed with open arms around the world.”
The Millers are a part of a brand new surge of American nurses, medical doctors, and different well being care staff moving to Canada, and particularly British Columbia, the place greater than 1,000 U.S.-trained nurses have been authorized to work since April. As the Trump administration enacts more and more authoritarian insurance policies and decimates funding for public health, insurance, and medical research, many nurses have felt the draw of Canada’s progressive politics, pleasant status, and common well being care system.
Additionally, some nurses had been incensed final yr when the Trump administration mentioned it might reclassify nursing as a nonprofessional degree, which might impose strict federal limits on the loans nursing college students might obtain.
Canada is poised to capitalize. Two of its most populous provinces, Ontario and British Columbia, have streamlined the licensing course of for American nurses since Trump returned to the White House. British Columbia additionally launched a $5 million advertising campaign final yr to recruit nurses from California, Oregon, and Washington state.
“With the chaos and uncertainty happening in the U.S., we are seizing the opportunity to attract the talent we need,” Josie Osborne, the province’s well being minister, mentioned in a press release saying the marketing campaign.
Fears Realized
Amy Miller, a nurse practitioner, mentioned she and her husband had been decided to maneuver their kids in a foreign country as a result of they felt Trump’s second time period would inevitably spiral into violence.
First, the Millers bought nursing licenses in New Zealand, however when the job search took too lengthy, they pivoted to Canada.
Justin was supplied a job inside weeks.
Amy discovered one inside three months.
So they moved. And just some days later, the Millers watched with horror from afar as their fears got here true.
As federal immigration forces clashed with protesters in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, federal brokers fatally shot an ICU nurse, Alex Pretti, as he filmed a confrontation and gave the impression to be making an attempt to protect a lady who was knocked down. Video of the killing confirmed border brokers pinning Pretti to the bottom earlier than seizing his hid, licensed handgun and opening fireplace on him.
The Trump administration shortly known as Pretti a “domestic terrorist” who supposed to kill federal brokers. That allegation was disputed by eyewitness movies that circulated on social media and spurred widespread outrage, together with from nurses and nursing organizations, a few of whom invoked the career’s obligation to look after the weak.
“I don’t want to say it was expected, but that’s why we are here,” Amy Miller mentioned. “Even our oldest kid, she was like: ‘It’s OK, Mom, because we are not there anymore. We are safe here.’ So she recognizes that, and she’s not even in middle school yet.”
Both the U.S. and Canada have a extreme want for nurses. The U.S. is projected to be quick about 270,000 registered nurses, plus no less than 120,000 licensed sensible nurses, by 2028, in accordance with recent estimates from the Health Resources and Services Administration. In Canada, nursing job vacancies tripled from 2018 to 2023, after they reached practically 42,000, in accordance with a recent report from the Montreal Economic Institute, a Canadian assume tank.
When requested to remark, the White House famous that industry data exhibits the variety of nurses licensed within the U.S. elevated in 2025. It dismissed accounts of nurses shifting to Canada as “anecdotes of individuals with severe cases of Trump derangement syndrome.”
“The American health care workforce is the finest in the world, and it continues to expand under President Trump,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai mentioned. “Employment opportunities in the American health care system remain robust, with career advancement and pay that far exceed that of other developed nations.”
‘A Sense of Relief’
It is unknown exactly what number of American nurses have moved north since Trump returned to workplace, as a result of some Canadian provinces don’t monitor or launch such statistics.
British Columbia, which has finished probably the most to recruit Americans, authorized the licensing functions of 1,028 U.S.-trained nurses from when the province’s streamlined software course of took impact in April 2025 via January, in accordance with the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives. In all of 2023, solely 112 candidates from the U.S. had been authorized, the company mentioned. In 2024, it was 127.
Increased curiosity from American nurses was additionally confirmed by nursing associations in Ontario and Alberta, in addition to by the nationwide Canadian Nurses Association.
Angela Wignall, CEO of Nurses and Nurse Practitioners of British Columbia, mentioned American nurses used to maneuver north as a result of they’d fallen in love with Canada (or a Canadian). But extra just lately, she mentioned, she had met nurses who feared the White House would spur violence and vigilantism, notably towards households that included same-sex {couples}.
“Some of them were living in fear of the administration, and they shared a sense of relief when crossing the border,” Wignall mentioned. “As a Canadian, it’s heartbreaking. And also a joy to welcome them.”
Vancouver Island, which has a inhabitants of about 860,000, has gained 64 U.S.-trained nurses since April, together with these at Nanaimo Regional, mentioned Andrew Leyne, a spokesperson for the island’s well being company.
One of the nurses was Susan Fleishman, a Canadian who moved to the U.S. as a baby, then labored for 23 years in American emergency rooms earlier than leaving the nation in November.
Fleishman mentioned hateful rhetoric from Trump has fueled an indignant division that has permeated and soured American life.
“It wasn’t an easy move — that’s for sure. But I think it’s definitely worth it,” she mentioned, fortunately again in Canada. “I find there is a lot more kindness here. And I think that will keep me here.”
Brandy Frye, who additionally labored for many years in American ERs, mentioned she moved to Vancouver Island final yr after ready to see whether or not Mark Carney would develop into Canada’s prime minister. Carney’s rise was extensively seen as a rejection of Trumpism.
Meanwhile, Frye mentioned, the California hospital the place she labored had been stripping phrases related to range and fairness out of its paperwork to appease the Trump administration. She couldn’t stand it.
“It felt like a step against everything I believe in,” Frye mentioned. “And I didn’t feel like I belonged there anymore.”
Like lots of the American nurses who’ve moved to Vancouver Island, Frye was first wooed to the realm by a viral video that was meant to draw vacationer {dollars} however ended up doing far more.
About a yr in the past, Tod Maffin, a social media content creator and former CBC Radio host, invited Americans to the port metropolis of Nanaimo for a weekend occasion designed to offset the influence of Trump’s tariffs on the native economic system.
Maffin mentioned about 350 people attended the April occasion.
“A lot of them were health care workers looking for an escape route,” Maffin mentioned. “They were there to help support our economy but also to look into Canada.”
Maffin noticed a possibility. He repurposed the occasion web site right into a recruiting software and launched a Discord chatroom to assist Americans relocate.
Maffin mentioned he believes the marketing campaign helped about 35 well being care staff transfer to Vancouver Island. Volunteers in more than 30 other Canadian communities have since duplicated his web site in an effort to draw their very own American nurses and medical doctors.
“There are communities across Canada where the emergency room closes at night because one nurse is out. That’s how thin staffing is,” Maffin mentioned.
“One new nurse in a small town, or in a midsized city like Nanaimo,” he mentioned, “makes a difference.”