[cmrdporcupine]

Oh please lost child return to us. We're begging you to come back. Gimme a break.

We are a country with 1/10th the population of the US -- the largest economy in the world and an aggressive military power -- and we're sitting right next to it, for most of our history barely holding onto an independent existence. Most of our "successful" industries consist of "ripping and shipping" raw commodities to service that market.

It should not surprise you why things are the way they are. It's gross how these domestic industries end up this way, captured by a cabal of self-serving corporate dickheads, but TBH on the whole the alternative would be raw subservience to US corporations who would steamroll our entire economy.

There is no easy answer, or it would have been done already.

[jamal-kumar]

I mean the easy answer for me was taking off, and now the country seems to be facing a brain drain. [1]

Good luck with that I guess.

[1] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/the-decibel/article...

[cmrdporcupine]

This has always been the case. You're not special or particularly interesting.

It was, however, amusing watching so many Canadians return during the Trump years and COVID. Our Google office in Waterloo almost doubled in size from returning Canadians.

But we frankly should have clawed the subsidized portion of your tuition from you before you left the country.

[sandworm101]

They flocked back under W too. Canadians ebb and flow across the boarder depending on how crazy US culture is at the particular moment.

[frosted-flakes]

What is W?

[sandworm101]

George Walker Bush, as opposed to his father George Herbert Walker Bush. The father was commonly called "George Bush" while president, the son was called "George W. Bush". The emphasis put on the W while speaking about the son evolved into just "W".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._(film)

>>W. is a 2008 American biographical comedy-drama film based on the life of George W. Bush. Directed by Oliver Stone and written by Stanley Weiser, it stars Josh Brolin as Bush. The supporting cast includes Elizabeth Banks, James Cromwell, Ellen Burstyn, Thandiwe Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Scott Glenn, and Richard Dreyfuss. Filming began on May 12, 2008, in Louisiana, and the film was released on October 17, 2008.

[908B64B197]

> It was, however, amusing watching so many Canadians return during the Trump years and COVID. Our Google office in Waterloo almost doubled in size from returning Canadians.

That was not my understanding of the trend at all. From all sources I've seen discussed over the years, it seems the Trump admin coincided with a record number of engineers coming to America from Canada. In 2020, 84% of graduating engineer from the Waterloo college went on to move to America [0].

However, what I was told and observed is that a lot of engineers previously working on H1Bs or other non-immigrant visas had their work authorizations revoked after the Trump administration decided to increase the scrutiny on "specialty occupations" [1]. From a friend of mine, I heard Canada was a popular destinations to send programmers who couldn't keep working in the US, no matter their passport, due to a lower bar on immigration.

[0] https://twitter.com/danluu/status/1351785083598893062

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-employmen...

[jamal-kumar]

I dunno I've been gone for a long time now. You want my tax return, too? I'll send you scans of my ID so you can steal my identity and score that

I love letting condescending Google employees steal my identity ever since deleting my Gmail account

[cmrdporcupine]

Don't worry, I'm not at Google anymore. My condescension is inherent and essential, not a property of my employment. But I probably wouldn't have let it loose if you didn't come across as a precious ass, yourself.

[jamal-kumar]

That's candy ass to you bucko

This is the closest I've come to a flamewar on this site, thanks for the cheap entertainment

[jagger27]

You’re being needlessly combative and hostile.