Each winter, an estimated 1 million Canadians abandon the Great White North for balmier destinations, heading to condos, rental properties or mobile home parks where they live for anywhere from a month to half a year.

Now the pandemic is upending the annual migration of Canada’s snowbirds. Some have opted to roost at home. Others flocked to sun-soaked destinations as normal, but in the year of the pandemic, the experience has been anything but.

Some have managed to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus sooner than they would have in Canada. But now they’re facing the prospect of stringent, expensive new border controls on their return — and the disapproval of their compatriots who followed the government’s recommendations.

“There’s a lot of people really suffering anxiety,” said Denise Dumont, editor in chief of Le Soleil de la Floride, a South Florida newspaper for the sizable contingent of French-speaking snowbirds.

Some of those back in Canada are giving the snowbirds’ …continued .
[Source: Washington Post]