[neilv]

> There are many things wrong with Canada. It has a go for bronze mentality, the smartest of us keep going to the US because there is not enough opportunity here, much of its public infrastructure is crumbling and the housing prices are frightful. The nation is very obviously sick.

Is anyone currently moving from Canada to the US?

If so, are they the "smartest", or do they simply have different priorities than a lot of equally smart people?

[jjmarr]

Virtually all of the top performers at my school left for the USA immediately after graduation.

I think somewhere between 70-90% of Waterloo graduates in CS leave every year.

Turns out doubling or tripling your take home compensation is absolutely worth it.

You can buy a house instead of renting an apartment with roommates. You can afford to marry and have children. You can buy all the things the government would've provided you had it not been dysfunctional.

Plus, there are just more jobs in SWE in the USA. Many of my classmates graduating last year in June are still unemployed since you have to be exceptional to get a job here.

Pretty much anyone who can get TN1/H1B/L1B does, unless you were born wealthy, have an extreme sense of patriotism, or have a very strong attachment to family.

[HDMI_Cable]

That's definitely true, though probably only limited to CS (and maybe the top 5% of people going to investment banking). The vast majority of the most intelligent people at any Canadian university will stay in Canada, and given the current political situation, I think that's probably only going to become more true.

Also, anecdotally, I would wager that schools with significant numbers of Americans (e.g., McGill) probably have more US students staying in Canada than vice versa at this point (with perhaps the exception of CS).

[heresie-dabord]

> Virtually all of the top performers at my school left for the USA immediately after graduation. [...] Turns out doubling or tripling your take home compensation is absolutely worth it. [...] You can buy a house instead of renting an apartment with roommates. You can afford to marry and have children. You can buy all the things the government would've provided you had it not been dysfunctional.

And how does the "dysfunction" of the current Canadian government compare to what is happening in the US, in your eyes?

> Plus, there are just more jobs in SWE in the USA.

There is the rational answer... for graduates in software.

[amrocha]

I took issue with this too, but chose to interpret it charitably. It’s true that a lot of our most qualified people move to the US because of the money.

[wvenable]

If you're young, healthy, and unattached there's almost no reason not to move to the US.