the NAFTA really does a number on us (Canada) here in making it so easy to work in the States on TN status. I went to university a few years ago with a small group of 3 other pretty bright programmer friends.
It turns out it's hard to find an excellent job in Canada. Though I'm now working for Shopify, which appears to be the only really great option for me here, the other three of them have recently moved to New York, the Valley, and North Carolina.
The problem with the tech scene in Canada is a chicken and egg one. We need good companies to prevent skilled tech workers from moving to the States, but we need skilled workers to build good companies. Moving to a Canadian startup hub, if one is ever designated, is not significantly easier for most people than moving to the Valley.
For me, it's the other way 'round. I'm an American (barely; I'm from Maine and talk like a Canadian) who'd love to move to Ottawa or Toronto, but there's not a hell of a lot up there.
Out west in the Vancouver area, I hear talk of many companies trying to band together to promote the tech sector, in an effort to turn things around. But as for right now, I agree that it's pretty bleak. I do see quite a number of nice job postings for Toronto, but not much elsewhere. (I'm an American who has managed to land a software dev job not even in Vancouver but in Victoria, which has a very limited scene outside of AbeBooks.)
It turns out it's hard to find an excellent job in Canada. Though I'm now working for Shopify, which appears to be the only really great option for me here, the other three of them have recently moved to New York, the Valley, and North Carolina.
The problem with the tech scene in Canada is a chicken and egg one. We need good companies to prevent skilled tech workers from moving to the States, but we need skilled workers to build good companies. Moving to a Canadian startup hub, if one is ever designated, is not significantly easier for most people than moving to the Valley.