My move to the USA 30 years ago was, as often expressed here, a natural exploration of a long-standing tradition in my family.
At no point was I running away from my Canadian roots. To the extent I was running, it was away from the heartache of surviving the outbreak of what would become known as hiv/AIDS in my communities. In fact, I did not ‘naturalize’ (become a US citizen) until 2008- just in time to vote for Obama. That was never intended, despite what the US government may think, to be a signal that I was renouncing or abandoning my Canadian citizenship (see the 1st link above for the long history of living either/ both sides of the proverbial 49th parallel).
During the entire time I worked, lived and played in the US I made regular visits to family and friends across Ontario. Retiring to Ontario was part of the plan going down- although the timing of my return was heavily influenced by the atrocities of the current regime. Safety for my household meant certain plans (being able to export my vehicle, for example) had to be abandoned. It truly is a small price to pay for freedom and security.
As part of my work to uncouple from Bigco while balancing life as a ‘digital gryphon’ with a distaste for consumption capitalism, I’ve worked to spend as much of my money with smaller businesses, and with Canadian ones, as I can manage. I’ve paid more, waited longer, and put effort into using less-bad sources. It’s a balancing act; ultimately everything within this crumbling system has negative repercussions- harm reduction is a valid, often disappointing, tactic.
Some things/ services are only reliably available through a corporate monstrosity- and I’m not prepared to be a hermit on a mountain top re-enacting the dawn of civilization. I don’t hate humanity- I hate the inhumanity consumption capitalism brings out.
A long-winded intro to saying that my efforts to move my domain name registrations away from GoDaddy have led me to create an account with Hover.com (that and the image are aff links; I get a few bucks if you use them) – a division of Tucows.
That’s a Canadian firm set up in 1993 to offer reviews and downloads of software. Some of you might recall using them; they were quickly followed by SourceForge and CNet.
Their pricing is competitive – a buck or two less than I was paying (they operate in US$). Now that I have a Canadian address I’m paying HST (a joint provincial/ federal sales tax) which I actually don’t mind- as a Canadian I get a pretty good return on my tax dollars. Could be better, of course.
With exchange and transaction fees I’m not really saving any money; happy to redirect more of my spend away from US Bigco to a Canadian Mediumco. I’ve already moved or created four domain names with them. I have half a dozen existing domains (and 2 new ones I want to register) waiting for their renewal dates, or free cash flow. They are big enough to make transfers easy, and small enough to have human beings available as needed.
Highly recommend.
