[xenihn]

It's not just the taxes/rent/COL. I know three Canadian SWEs whose parents could have easily bought them a nice house or condo in any major Canadian city, if they had wanted to stay.

One of them explained it to me this way: the quality of employers, coworkers, and the overall software engineering work you'll do in Canada just doesn't compare to the US. Even if pay/finances were exactly the same, going to the US would still be the better career choice, because that's what everyone with talent and ambition does. The people who stay behind aren't people you want to work with, if you can help it.

[yladiz]

I was with you up until the end. There are numerous reasons why people “stay behind” beyond them not being “people you want to work with”, so don’t just lump everyone in that bucket of “they’re not good enough”.

[xenihn]

Not my thoughts. I've never even been to Canada.

[nasalgoat]

I "stayed behind" because I didn't qualify for an H1B visa due to being self-taught, but now 25 years later I'm glad I stayed here with my free healthcare and high standard of living. Yes, lots of talented people leave but lots stay as well, for reasons beyond the mighty dollar.

[betaby]

Without any sarcasm, do you use that 'free healthcare'? Because in QC it's not that available. Wait times are really bad, even once something is scheduled it can be pushed to future multiple times. Screens are constantly 'forgotten', pushed to the future. All of my colleagues with European/Indian passports traveled for medical reason to their home countries. Again that's Montreal experience, and as I read that's typical for Canada in general.

[nasalgoat]

I have a primary care physician who I can book online to see usually within a few days, or if I choose one of the other oncall doctors I can see them same or next day.

I recently had a referral to a specialist for a non-emergency exam that was scheduled out two months. When I've had an emergency I've gone to the hospital and been seen within a few minutes to a couple of hours depending on the issue.

I would say I am fairly satisfied with the access I get, and I'm especially happy that I never have to worry about being denied coverage, or ending up "out of network", or having different levels of coverage depending on my employment.

[betaby]

'was scheduled out two months' - that's in fact a very long wait. Again, speaking about Montreal, I was able to see a specialist for 'problem A' in about two months as well, while had to wait for another 'specialist B' for a year+. I find those times just horrible.

[nasalgoat]

For my particular issue I wasn't too put out. If I had wanted faster service I probably could have paid out of pocket to get it.

The point is, the system works. I never have to really worry about healthcare or its costs.

[betaby]

I'm glad that you had good experiences, but I don't share it. I don't like to live in 'unknown' or pain for months just because generalist thinks it 'not life threatening'. Of course my ankle pain was 'life threatening' - it's degraded my quality of life every day.

[sradman]

> The people who stay behind aren't people you want to work with, if you can help it.

This sounds like a generalization in need of evidence. Ultimately, the co-op program at UoW has a long history that includes ranking/matching data for co-op employers and students. It would be interesting to see the trends over time. My intuition is that the top ranked students accept jobs from their co-op employers after graduation but that may have changed.

[908B64B197]

> The people who stay behind aren't people you want to work with, if you can help it.

From my experience, the only place the last statement hasn't been true is Montreal.

There are a lot of engineers over there that could move but won't ever. That's partly why everyone is setting AI shops over there.