I'm out of the loop, but the last local tech job I had was with instant domains inc. That was great. These days I'm doing marine/geo science work with an NGO and I don't hear much about the local scene. A lot of the old players are still around, but there must be something new and interesting happening.

A coworker mentioned there's an autonomous marine sensing startup right in the downtown area. I want to look into that.

Any specific areas you want to buy in?

If I had to guess as a lifelong California resident, I'd say the salary discrepancy is probably the biggest factor. I'd also guess the weather and lack of available jobs would be the next biggest factors, not necessarily in that order.

50% paycut for similar cost of living. Do you want to put 3 kids into a 2-bedroom apartment on your US$120k salary, with $10k of RSUs the government takes 53% of? In addition to a 13% sales tax?

Someone has to stay to fight the shit happening in the US! The problem won't just go away if people move.

A friend (he is from mostly warm and sunlit South India) who moved to Canada from California says he just can’t take that weather anymore. So maybe weather is a huge factor? You deal with that not everyday in your life but every hour..second and year round.

Those of us in the Cascadian movement have been talking about it for decades!

Canada isn't interested in being part of a country that's 50% American either.