Why Canadian Ambition Cashes Out South of the Border

The difference is absurd if a Canadian is exceptionally skilled at what you do, particularly if you are in the top 10% of earners. Three-quarters of the reason Canada's GDP per capita continues to lag behind the United States and the top 1% can be explained by those individuals alone. By themselves, they make up nearly half of the difference. When our highest-paid engineers, physicians, and entrepreneurs, examine their bank accounts and compare them to the salaries of their classmates in San Francisco or New York, the math does the convincing. The degree and twelve-hour days are the same, but one paycheck has an extra zero (or two) and includes stock that can be used as a down payment on a home.

We constantly convince ourselves that we are a wealthy nation because the earth is rich in timber, nickel, and oil, and for a very long time that was sufficient to coast. Compared to our American competitors, businesses here spend a fraction on research and development, and Ottawa continues to approve new pipelines and mines rather than making significant investments in the things that lead to breakthroughs and millionaires. After graduating from Waterloo with a computer science degree that half the world would kill for, a young person looks around and discovers that the most exciting job in Canada pays perhaps 60% of what he/she has already been offered in Seattle, with half the upside. There is a higher chance these highly educated and skilled individuals will leave for more money and opportunities.

Even the immigrants we have worked so hard to draw in wind up in the same fragile situation. We fly them in, grant them permanent residency, give ourselves a pat on the back, and then give them a job that only requires thirty percent of their real skills. While awaiting "Canadian experience," a PhD candidate in machine learning drives for Uber. After a few years, the suitcase reappears when a Seattle recruiter sends them a direct message on LinkedIn with an offer that doesn't discredit their intelligence.

It's not that Canada is uninteresting or impoverished; rather, it's that we have given up on swinging for the fences. We grew accustomed to being the quiet, polite younger brother who sells raw materials to the energetic, ambitious neighbour. We also pretend to be shocked whenever another notable individual quietly packs up and moves south, as if we hadn't seen the exact same film the year before and the year before that.