Escape to Canada

Escape to Canada (U.S.: Land of the Freer) is a 2005 Canadian satirical documentary film written and directed by Albert Nerenberg, with cinematography by producer Shannon Brown, the debut feature of their production company, Elevator Films, commissioned by the Documentary Channel, Canal D, and the National Film Board of Canada. The film examines the results of Canada's relaxing of its marijuana laws at the same time that same-sex marriage became legal, along with Canada's abstention from the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq having made the country a perceived haven for progressive Americans. The documentary's events begin in the summer of 2003 when both same-sex marriage and marijuana were legalized (temporarily, in the case of the latter). The film underscores the contrast between the liberal movement in Canada and the more conservative attitude in the U.S., the premise being that "liberal attitudes beget liberal laws", and that "Canada, and not the U.S., is North America's pre-eminent freedom-loving country."