I sorta agree with you about the hurdles but there has a been a bunch of very sucessful startups in Canada. I can't name you a google but Softimage, Ubisoft, Bi

I sorta agree with you about the hurdles but there has a been a bunch of very sucessful startups in Canada. I can't name you a google but Softimage, Ubisoft, Bioware, RIM, ATI, Desire2Learn... and on the non tech side Cirque Du Soleil(Founder just went to space last year) All pretty big successes. For 1/10 the population as the US you can't expect the same level of output. On the talent side, Montreal and the Toronto area are pretty big recruiting grounds for Microsoft Google and other tech companies. Tons of Game companies have established themselves in Montreal to draw on that pool. There is a lot of talent here and a lot of people would want to stay here instead of working in the US.Montreal's 2 english universities and a lot of French ones around help keep replenishing the supplies. Toronto has some very good schools too (Waterloo being one of the best Comp Sci program in the world). There are a bunch of ways to get government money but it does involve some major red tape. It be cool to find someone who's gone through it and could make a writeup on it. EDIT: I should also mention that there are other good cities in Cananda ;p I did not mention Vancouver