Canadian government website prepared for increased traffic on U.S. election night

Depending on how the results shake out south of the border, Americans might start looking up how to move to Canada.

In 2016, when Donald Trump was first elected President of the U.S., Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s website crashed due to a traffic surge.

While it cannot be said that the U.S. election results were the sole cause of the spike in traffic, Google searches for “how to move to Canada” tend to increase on U.S. election nights.

The search term was on the rise this year as election day approached, including a significant spike the day after U.S. President Joe Biden’s debate with Trump, which would mark the beginning of the end of his re-election campaign.

Anyone looking for immigration information is directed to Canada.ca, the government’s main website. How will it handle a possible spike in traffic?

A spokesperson for Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) tells CTV News Ottawa that Canada.ca is built with high traffic volumes in mind.

“The Canada.ca website is the main website through which the public, Canadian and international, access reliable and authoritative Government of Canada information. Canada.ca is specifically designed to automatically scale on demand to meet high levels of traffic,” an email said.

Whether Americans want to move to Canada, the U.S. election comes at a time when the nation is cutting back on the number of newcomers it accepts. The federal government recently announced a plan to reduce immigration levels by 20 per cent as many Canadians face housing and affordability concerns.