9 ms·
Work in Silicon Valley and Spooked About Trump? Canada Wants You
- ap22213 11y agoI would love to help pump up the GDP at a new country. What I'm looking for: Efficiently run government, low corruption, policies that encourage education and health, and progressive expanded rights and freedoms. I'm in. But, based on what I know about Canada, I don't think it's it.
- elthran 11y agoSounds like you want a Scandinavian country
- Matachines 11y agoIDK about the rest but Sweden has definitely not encouraged good education in a while.
- ar0 11y agoAlso, if you are fleeing from Trump's anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rhetoric (as the Bloomberg article suggests), some of those places (e.g. Denmark) might not really be the best place to go.
- cplanas 11y agoAs an immigrant in Denmark, I can confirm. After a while here, Trump sounds like a clown with centrist political views on immigration.
- ordbajsare 11y agoHAHAHAHhhaaahHAHAHAHA .... your are so wrong
- ar0 11y agoCould you expand on your reasoning for this conclusion a bit? What knowledge of Canada does not fit to these requirements? Which countries would in your opinion be a better fit?
- caiob 11y agoCanada is the closest thing you will get to those goals without being trapped in a boring isolated Nordic European country.
- padobson 11y agoYou mean Europe's Canada?
- S4M 11y agoHow about France and Germany?
- realusername 11y agoFrench here, France is the complete opposite of an efficient government. The bureaucracy is massive and everywhere. It's quite outside of the scope of this topic but the short answer is don't create a company there.
- S4M 11y agoI'm French as well (expat, though). What you say is true, but it strikes me as a lesser evil than the ones that are plaguing USA: little social protection and high cost of education among others.
- realusername 11y agoAlso expat on my case (London). Yes indeed I agree. My problem with the French system is more the bureaucracy than anything else. I'm from the countryside in a post-industrial area so it makes it even worse than in cities. I have a brother who has a shop and honestly, it's impossible to manage the paperwork nowadays, I don't want to put any anecdotes here because people won't beleive me and I will probably be downvoted. I think around ~70% of the shops in the area are close to bankruptcy and the system is crashing really hard currently. If it stays like this, everyone will be relying on some sort of black market to purchase goods in less than 10 years. While I guess main cities are still okay, things are not really working anymore in remote areas.
- meric 11y agoTake a look at New Zealand.
- konart 11y ago>Efficiently run government >Low corruption >policies that encourage education and health >progressive expanded rights and freedoms. You can chose only 3.
- Ntrails 11y ago>You can chose only 3 I'm pretty sure you're lucky to get 1
- refurb 11y agoprogressive expanded rights and freedoms If that includes freedom of speech, you may want to rethink Canada. Say something politically incorrect and expect to be pulled in front of the on Human Rights Commission to explain yourself and potentially be fined. In terms of corruption, try googling "Sponsorship Scandal".
- jbob2000 11y agoNo, we don't want people who, at the first sign of trouble, pack their bags and leave. If you don't like Trump, stay there and fight for your home.
- furyofantares 11y agoThat's an interesting stance on immigration.
- pmoriarty 11y agoThe problem is that this is far, far from the first sight of trouble in the US. I'll spare the detailed history lesson, but Trump would not be the first right-wing, reactionary President in the US, and there are plenty of other reasons to leave. Many in the US feel helpless to affect politics for a variety of reasons. Trump may be, for some, more of the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.
- jbob2000 11y agoOh please, every country has problems, the US is just in the limelight because they own like 90% of the world's media. Canada just kicked out a right-wing government that held power for almost 10 years. The people who would leave for greener pastures would come to Canada, find that it's not so green, and head for the next "fad".
- refurb 11y agoGreat point. It's easy to say "Canada looks better than the US", when you don't know what it's like to live in Canada. It has it's own unique problems.
- Grishnakh 11y agoDo you want highly-productive knowledge workers in your country to boost its tech economy or not? If not, then fine, we'll find another country that wants to greatly improve their tech sector. You don't want anything like the economic juggernaut that is Silicon Valley in your country? That's your choice, but seems pretty shortsighted to me. Most countries actually want to import people who grow their economy a lot and contribute a ton in taxes without draining their social-welfare systems.
- neom 11y agoWonder what visa they want us on. (I'm Canadian, but still)
- n00b101 11y agoWhat exactly do they propose is the incentive for founding a startup in Canada instead of just doing it in the US? It can't be Waterloo because those grads don't want to stay here, as things stand (brain drain effect). It can't be the weather, or taxes. It definitely isn't the investors, Canadian investors are notoriously conservative when it comes to new ventures (unless your business is to dig a new hole in the ground and pull out rocks). It isn't the cost of living, the average price of a home in Toronto is $1M. The only support for startups is a decades old tax credit program called SRED which requires you to domicile your company as a Canadian owned private corporation (e.g., no Delaware corporations) and it is notorious for being beuraucratic and it clearly favours larger established companies over true startups. The government has failed miserably at incentivizing startups. This latest pitch seems to be based on nothing more than dusting off the old canard of Canada being more "multi-cultural" than the US, and using Donald Trump to attract startup entrepreneurs? This coming from the institutions that gave us Stephen Harper and Rob Ford? These gimmicks are more of an indication that they're not serious abot incentivizing startups, they are just trying to score political points at home.
- altotrees 11y agoMy uncle is an engineer in Toronto, and often speaks positively of the startup scene in parts of Canada. I know Waterloo loses quite a few grads to the Bay Area and other major U.S. cities, but haven't some companies actually relocated to be closer to the scene there? I am thinking Pivotal Labs and Google off the top of my head. I am genuinely curious on your take, since you seem to have direct knowledge. I have seen many people say things in the same vein, but also hear positive things from people in Canada and outsiders as well.
- nibs 11y agoSRED is impossible to get, and has been for several years. We make novel manufacturing plant floor technology that is sold inside and outside of Canada and seen as unique IP. Getting SRED is harder than building the technology, so we just gave up. I would gladly trade places with an American running away from Trump, to escape Liberal^2 here in Ontario. Google "Ontario Sunshine List" if you want to see our California-esque problems with government misinvestment.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- jnordwick 11y agoI'd love to create a statup in a bureaucratic, third-world country. Canada sounds perfect! (preparing for modbomb oblivion)
- JMCQ87 11y agoNot even Trump would make we want to work in adtech.
- cabernal 11y agoThis is true, a lot of startups (in the Toronto area at least) work on ad/marketing tech, but if you look closely you can find places that are working on interesting projects (WealthSimple, Quandl, TopHat)
- pbourke 11y agoI saw the Sortable ad in my Facebook feed. Good for a few laughs. Presidents come and go, but the opportunities in the US have been consistently better than Canada for decades now in tech. Canadians come to the US for a better standard of living, comparatively more affordable housing (yes, even in the Bay Area!), a diverse and booming job market with interesting opportunities and a less conservative startup culture. None of that seems to be changing anytime soon.
- maxsilver 11y agoI love the idea of relocating to Canada. But every time I've looked into it, companies seemed to only pay entry level wages for experienced positions (80K-100K CAD which is 60-75K USD), while having high coastal-type housing costs (500K - 1M CAD, which is 400k to 760k USD) Sure, greatly reduced health care cost. But even accounting for that, it still seemed like a big financial setback. Unless I'm missing something, it seems like if you could afford a home in Toronto, you might as well sell it and buy a house in NYC or SF or Boston. Your cost of living would be about the same, but your income would jump roughly 2x or higher. EDIT : For example, Sortable is the Canadian company in the article. Their "3+ year experience" Software Engineer position on their website maxes out at 100K CAD, a salary 25% lower than Amazon's Seattle interns make (~100K USD).
- jordigh 11y agoDowntown Toronto is probably the most expensive place for housing. The salaries are about comparable elsewhere in Canada, with much cheaper housing options elsewhere in the GTA, or in Mtl or Vancouver. I wouldn't say I'm making bank in Mtl, but my salary is comfortable and gives me slack. Most people I know start buying homes here in their mid-30s.
- at-fates-hands 11y agoThe insanity about this is HE'S NOT EVEN THE NOMINEE YET. Considering how pissed the establishment Republicans are that he might be the nominee, they're all betting on an open convention followed by some combination of a Walker, Cruz, Rubio, Ryan ticket. I can't believe how people have lost their minds and he most likely won't get the amount of delegates required to get the nomination outright before the convention in June. Clearly whatever he's doing, he's struck a HUGE nerve somewhere, because there is a fuck ton of panic in the streets and it's still very, very, very early in the process.
- pmoriarty 11y agoCandidates like Trump often serve the useful purpose of making candidates that would otherwise seem extreme look moderate. I'm almost surprised there isn't some sort of loud-mouthed, extreme liberal anti-Trump candidate on the Democratic side to make some of their other candidates look more moderate by comparison.
- beeboop 11y agoTaking extreme positions doesn't win elections unfortunately. Trump has a few of his own extreme opinions and I feel relatively confident he's going to lose pretty bad to Hillary because of it. Hillary is the master of no extremes.
- tallerholler 11y ago> Hillary is the master of no extremes. except for consistently lying...
- pmoriarty 11y agoAre there any successful politicians that don't consistently lie?
- tallerholler 11y ago
- pcmaffey 11y agoHah, I was denied access to Canada for a 3 day business trip to meet with a client. So we applied for a visa, and that was denied because there's no category for software developer or designer or PM in NAFTA. And even if there was, I would have required an engineering or graphic design degree to be eligible... without doing a costly analysis to make sure no one else in Canada could do my job. Agreed with above comment about this being a gimmick.
- jordigh 11y agoBusiness trip, NAFTA? I guess you're Mexican? I don't think you need a visa otherwise. Trudeau said he would work on lifting the visa requirements for Mexicans. So, perhaps this problem will resolve itself soon. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justin-trudeau-proposes-lifting-mexican-visa-requirement-1.3122651 http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justin-trudeau-proposes-lift... In the meantime, you probably can get an ordinary tourist visa? I don't think you really need to go through the NAFTA categories or get a Labour Market Opinion for a 3-day business trip, do you?
- pcmaffey 11y agoUS citizen. There on business (client meetings), denied access for visitor visa. Applied for work visa, denied because didn't fit NAFTA categories. I should have said I was there for pleasure, but I was trying to be ya know, honest. Now my passport is flagged for 7 years, so I better have a rock solid vacation plans if I want to try to enter on a tourist visa.
- bryanlarsen 11y agoUS citizens do not need a visa to travel to Canada for business visits. According to [1], client meetings are specifically allowed. You cannot do 'hands-on labour' though, so it can be a fine line that you must have crossed. As a Canadian, I once travelled to the US to assist a client with integration for a week. I got pulled into secondary questioning. He asked one question about what I was doing in the States, and then spent a few more minutes grilling me about what exactly the first level agent had asked me, how I had answered, et cetera. I could tell he was preparing to ream out the first level agent for wasting his time... 1: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/business-who.asp http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/business-who.asp
- gist 11y agoAbsurd. Even if for some odd reason you buy into the unproven idea that things would be bad for what you do with Trump as President, moving to a new country when someone might only be in office for 4 years is ridiculous and shows that you act on emotions, not rational and logic.
- Grishnakh 11y agoI'm sure someone said that back in 2000 just before Bush got elected. Bush's reign has had a huge effect on the American economy and culture, lasting far longer than just 4 years.