The Canadian immigration website went down Tuesday night while Google searches for “moving to Canada” surged as Donald Trump won key battleground states like Florida, opening a wide path to the White House for the GOP nominee.
At 11:48 p.m., the phrase peaked in Google search. Other related searches included “moving to Canada if Trump wins” and “celebrities moving to Canada.”
Coincidentally, at the same time, Canada’s immigration website was giving users errors, unable to load.
According to the website isitdownrightnow.com, the Canadian immigration website had been down for about 13 minutes as of 12:13 a.m. Wednesday.
The website crash and search surge occurred as Trump held onto his tight lead over Clinton in the popular vote, and continued to gain in the Electoral College.
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Earlier in the night, the Canada’s official Twitter account tweeted out a message about immigrants in Canada.
“In Canada, immigrants are encouraged to bring their cultural traditions with them and share them with their fellow citizens,” the message read, causing some on the social network to speculate about the tweet’s timing.
I don't think the timing of this tweet was random... Canada's most passive-aggressive tweet to date. https://t.co/njxqqLNMI0
— Stephanie VanderLeek (@mrsvleek) November 9, 2016
do you mean Americans too?
— Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) November 9, 2016
The Google search phrase also peaked during the week of Super Tuesday in March.
Aimee Ortiz can be reached at aimee.ortiz@globe.com. Follow her on twitter @aimee_ortiz.