In the late 1960s and early 1970s, tens of thousands of American citizens sought, and gained, refuge in Canada. They weren’t technically refugees – most applied for landed immigrant status – but what they were seeking was, in effect, a safe place to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War.
The official policy of Canada’s “Department of Manpower and Immigration” was not to ask about applicants’ military status; these were mostly young, educated, middle-upper-class men, after all – making them precisely the type of “desirable” immigrant seen to offer benefits to Canada.
“Conservative columnists” who expect everyone else to foot the bill for their virtue signaling are tiresome.
There are precious few actual refugees if any fleeing the US into Canada.
