Not long ago I made inquiries regarding the possibility of being granted "permanent residency" status in Australia.Not as a refugee (political or economic) but simply because I love the country and people.I had no intention of renouncing my US citizenship at all.It had nothing to do with dissatisfaction with my homeland.
Anyway,I was told that under the "points system" they use to determine eligibility I didn't even come *close* to qualifying basically for two reasons 1)I got zero points for "age"...they want kids in their 20's and 30's...and 2)I didn't have a skill that was in short supply there.If I had been a nurse or physician I *might* have had a chance.Was I disappointed? Yup.Was I angry...did I feel cheated? Nope.Australia was being selective,wanting those who would "contribute" to the nation for a long time and who wouldn't take a job that could be filled by "real" Australians.
It would be fully reasonable for Canada to take the same basic attitude toward potential immigrants from the US (and elsewhere).Too bad *we* didn't take that attitude.
We still have a real estate bubble here (Vancouver and Toronto are outrageously expensive), but we’re not nearly as vulnerable as the US because we didn’t have an equivalent monstrosity to the “Community Reinvestment Act” and we only have 5 major banks. Our banks can actually determine if you are credit worthy and have a job before they give you a mortgage. We had a real estate bubble in the late 80’s which burst in 1990. There was a significant drop in prices in Toronto which made things uncomfortable for a few years as many people were in the bucket (mortgage higher than the appraised value), but most people had jobs and were able to ride things out until prices started to rebound around 1996-97. There will definitely be some pain if we get a significant price adjustment, but it is very unlikely that any of our banks will be in jeopardy.