
Toronto would like to be seen as the nice person’s Silicon Valley - kjhughes
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/17/1003314/toronto-would-like-to-be-seen-as-the-nice-persons-silicon-valley-if-thats-not-too-much-trouble/
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QuixoticQuibit
What a strange article based on the common notion that "Canadians are
notoriously polite" and as such want to create a "nice person's Silicon
Valley." As someone who was raised in the GTA and came down to SV for full-
time work, I can't say I've noticed any significant differences between people
who live in either region. In fact, both regions have quite diverse
populations and I find that most people are decent and generally polite.

> [Canadians] generally go out of their way to not criticize their southern
> neighbors. Despite this, there is a burning nationalism deep down that can
> take the form of disgust toward many aspects of American culture

The above quote is pretty humorous considering the article's message. I've
always found it saddening that a strong part of a Canadian's identity is that
they're not American. While the US definitely seems to have more problems
(greater political divisiveness), I feel like that's mostly seen in the news
and not a reflection of most people in day-to-day life, at least in SV.

As for the idea that Toronto can become the North's SV, I'd love to see it
happen; I think they have a great opportunity with how the US is currently
handling skilled immigrants. I hate living in the Bay Area. But for that to
happen, we need to see salaries increase competitively with SV. There's often
talk about a "Brain Drain" in Canada as college grads and techies in general
move to the US for double the earning potential. I even know someone who was
attending university in Canada as a PR and as soon as he became a citizen, he
got a TN visa to work in SF.

I've seen others on HN who had issues with the H1-B system mention that they
plan to try for Canada and go through the TN system to work in the US. So it's
my belief that as soon as the US ends its hostility towards skilled immigrants
(Trump removed this year?) and as long as salaries remain much higher in the
US, Toronto will always play second fiddle to the many US tech hubs. But who
knows, perhaps this COVID-19 situation will prove to be the great equalizer
for remote work being seen as ubiquitously viable, in which case these
existing tech hubs may fall to the wayside.

~~~
ido
Isn't a lot of the appeal for employers that salary costs are lower?

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Apocryphon
Well, its rents are certainly aspiring to be like SV’s

