Dana Alison Levy

Because I don’t want to move to Canada

I am American, born and raised. My husband is Canadian, and though we’ve raised our kids in the USA and have family and community here, we also have deep roots in Canada. It is, in many ways, our other home. In 2016 I got so many emails, all saying a version of the same thing: “Are you moving to Canada?” “Are you leaving?” “Can you take us with you?”

We didn’t leave, and I don’t want to leave, even as our country grows more polarized, and the radical right gets bolder and bolder. I don’t want to run away. I don’t want to abandon America to the bigots and xenophobes and book banners. I want to stay here and build a better future.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are not perfect or perfectly aligned with my politics, and that is just fine by me. I am not looking for perfection; I am looking for a president and vice president who uphold the rule of law, who believe in telling the truth about our history, even when it’s ugly, and who—even when Americans disagree with them—respect our beliefs and our voices and our fundamental right to protest and advocate for what we believe in.

More specifically, I want a president and vice president who believe that women are actually equal citizens, that the urgency of climate change needs to be addressed now, that countries work best when individuals make their own choices about their bodies and families, while the government takes care of infrastructure, a social safety net, and basic human rights.

I write books for kids and young adults (books that have sometimes been banned!), and people often ask me: What makes a book a children’s book? I tell them that it’s not the age of the narrator or the subject matter, necessarily. It’s that, for the most part, books for kids must have a whiff of hope in them. Even when they have sad endings, they must offer the suggestion of brighter days ahead. They must allow kids to realize that things will get better. 

A vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz is a vote for the whiff of hope. It’s a vote for a chance to make a better world, for us and for the rest of the world. They’re counting on us… even in Canada.

Dana Alison Levy is the author of Not Another Banned Book.