My son (who lives in NYC-he is dual US Canadian) told me of this site and asked me to comment. I am in the medical field - most of this blog is about tech but I think I can add to the medical brain drain. In a nutshell - I was born and rasied in Saskatchewan - enrolled McGill University after high school and spent 12 years there - BSc, MCCM, FRCSC - am a surgeon. I went to UCSF early 80's to do a microsurgical fellowship and spent 4 years there. At that point still a ground-thumping, flag-waving Canuck. Moved back to Canada with some special skills - for a number of reasons became outraged and fed up with how the Socialized Canadian Medical System treated its docs and decided to leave after 5 years. Married a US Nurse, got a green card and moved back to the Bay Area (good job offer). Have been a Professor Stanford University 28 years and am retiring. Got my US Citizenship last year. I plan spending the rest of my life in the US. If I was asked as a kid if this would be my life I would have told then they were nuts. Can add to this later if any wants.
Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
681–690 of 715 posts
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#682Earlier quoted context omitted.
First of all, it's the weather. Half the year is rendered unusable for unplanned adventure. More than once here, on a rainy winter day, I've gotten in my car and driven east until I hit the hills, found a park, and enjoyed a sunny afternoon.
I grew up in the PNW, and I absolutely agree, I hated nothing more than feeling like I could never do anything outside because you can't count on the weather being acceptable unless it's between July 5 and September 5. It's not that it's bad that often, it's just so unreliable.
I think PNW winters are tricky. I'd actually rather spend the winter in a city like Toronto. I grew up in a similar city climate-wise and having a real winter made it easier to get outside & skate or snowshoe or something. The fewer hours of sunlight were worse than the cold/snow.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#683Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly I gotta agree with you here, bud. When I was growing up in Canada I had to keep my dreams a secret. If you had any grand goals people thought you were an egomaniacal weirdo. It wasn't until I seriously dated someone here in the US that I realized the difference: as part of the "delving into each others' inner lives" phase of the early relationship, I sheepishly admitted I had dreams of doing some pretty big…
As a Canadian who has lived in the US for 1 year (in SF) I have a totally different take away. I noticed that people here are very hard working, almost as they are desperate for success, like if they fail or lost their job they would just die, poor and homeless and healthcare-less. I found that people in Canada were much more focused on happiness and were more willing to make sacrifices to improve their quality of li…
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Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#684Earlier quoted context omitted.
But can one really count that, at least in the context of how the people understand where their money really comes from? Consider the adage, "Buy land: they don't make it any more." A growth in the value of land isn't, in and of itself, an actual product, though I do agree the construction is. However, how much of that construction is actually in service of a different industry (i.e. would never have happened but for…
Certainly not all that construction is related to real-estate. Still real-estate as a % of GDP eclipses "mining, Oil & Gas". http://www.investorsfriend.com/canadian-gdp-canadian-imports...
My point is that a chart like that doesn't even hint at how much of that "real estate" activity is a direct result of the needs of "conservative" industries. It certainly stands to reason that something like resource extraction is not just land-intensive but is intensive in changes to land ownership/tenancy.
I'm pretty confident that someone who, according to that chart, is in the "real estate" industry who works selling houses in newly-built mining towns knows full well what industry really supplies his income.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#685Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, that's why Germany has maglevs and high speed rail and California can barely get it's own HSR off the ground. That's a truly awful saying that's emblematic of the stupid prejudices brought about by American exceptionalism and the even more obnoxious (to me) West Coast exceptionalism.
As much as I nodded along with your exasperation at the parent poster's (father's) demonstration of bias, you can't compare long-distance public transportation infrastructure in places with the population densities and growth rates of Germany and California, two extremes in that sense. California has 1/5 more area, with half the population, and that population has almost doubled over the last 35 years, versus a few %…
The point is, it's still very difficult to do basic things in California: get to work and have a place to live. This is progressive?
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#686Earlier quoted context omitted.
> who are hesitant to move to USA because of immigration restrictions. Where does this perception come from? Canada has stricter immigration rules than the USA. EDIT: Specifically what I'm talking about is that Canada only allows in immigrants who are economically desirable and speak English or French.
My wife and I both have PhDs in electronics (her’s was 50% neuroscience) I have run a successful business for 7 years and she works for a high end car manufacturer in electrical design as a manager, both are native UK. We can get a permenant residency Canada visa straight off the bat without a job offer (quicker with a job offer though granted). We can’t work out how to get a US visa for love nor money and have basic…
L1A New Office via your company?
Start a US business with a partner so you own just 50% then petition for an H1B for yourself every year until you win.
E1 or E2?
You have a fair bit of options if you really want it and are willing to jump through hoops.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#687Earlier quoted context omitted.
1/4 acre is a large amount for a 3 bedroom house - where I live in the UK a typical plot size in a semi-rural area, from the 70s is about 1/10th acre, for new houses it's about half that. The best solution to high demand is a land value tax. That applies not just to houses, but to offices, shops, parking lots, etc. This means that land owners have to use their land efficently. If parking triples in cost, so be it. If…
You’re welcome to try passing one in California. It’s unconstitutional and most people with appreciated home values can’t afford to pay it.
How is tax unconstitutional?
If you allow a 1% LVT to accrue as a charge on the value of the home, that's only paid on disposal, there's no affordability problem either. Own a $2m piece of land at age 18, each year 1% of the value gets added as a charge. Die age 108 and 80% of the land value is then taken to pay the back-charges, leaving 20% for the estate.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#688Earlier quoted context omitted.
Canadian here (who lives outside of Canada but recently did a stint there for a bit) and this will sound negative but f-it. Canadian culture sucks when it comes to trying new things. Canada has some extra safety net but the culture is puritanical and conservative and nobody wants to go out on a limb and try something new and crazy. Not like Americans. Those that do are constantly questioned by everybody. The idea of…
I believe you are comparing your Canadian upbringing, which reflected an adolescent perspective on a broad spectrum of society, to your adult experiences in a tech bubble. This is a pretty obvious fallacy (the tech bubble is a highly self-selected population of intelligent, well-educated people who like to build things). I grew up in suburban Minnesota. It's not exactly ambition central, but it's miles ahead of small…
> You're talking about a country that elected Trump here.
A move clearly demonstrating the willingness to take a risk.
That kind of boldness is not a thing in Canada.
> It's afraid of immigrants
And is that unreasonable? Why?
It's obvious immigration can do serious harm to the lower and middle classes.
What's surprising is how open they are to immigration despite the risk.
For example most of the western world enforces stricter skilled visa requirements.
> "foreign" religions
And again is that unreasonable? Why?
Even so the US is incredibly accomodating - just look at the Amish for a good example of tolerance.
> We incarcerate more of our citizens per capita than any other developed country.
Because Americans are more willing to take risks. Good and bad.
> and we hate anyone who is ugly, awkward, old, or otherwise socially disadvantaged.
Who is we? I certainly don't think that's true. Maybe you could argue indifference?
> I'm not a giant fan of American culture
You seem to only see the negatives. Why is that?
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#689Earlier quoted context omitted.
and people from Iran or Syria?
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/05/01/iranian-immigrat... Maybe Trump's mistake is being vocal about it while Canada maintains plausible deniability.
Spot on!
The Obama admin did the same thing. Sure it was technically possible to get a visa but in reality it was impractical and deliberately so.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#690Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure if he's self-taught (most likely not), but as for languages he did exactly exams required by Canadian immigration service. In any case, my point is that it is observably easier for a CS professional to move to California than to Canada. I don't blame anyone/anything, because frankly I have no first-hand knowledge. Probably, the system is transparent but inefficient.
> my point is that it is observably easier for a CS professional to move to California than to Canada Pretty sure you are missing some key details, you can get a Canadian permanent residency if you the required number of points which are based on your education, language, work experience etc. For majority of the cases if you have the points you will get the PR visa. Once you get the visa you can move to Canada and lo…
You missed the moment when I mentioned the guy has been waiting for reply for 5 years. It is inefficient if the goal is to attract more qualified professionals. It would be easier for him to find a job offer from US, or Swiss, or German-based company, and settle in one of these countries in about a year. I'm not talking about getting citizenship, of course, but live&work permissions. Maybe, it's getting harder in US now as political moods are changing, but five years ago it was exactly so.