> At the end of the day, those 'low' salaries are only low relatively. They are more than enough for most people and only a reason to move south if your main driver is money. Otherwise they're good enough.

The average Canadian house costs $585k now[0]. That's over 10x these average Canadian tech salaries. Housing prices contributed to our decision to move from Toronto to Seattle 10 years ago. I imagine that they are even more of a motivator nowadays.

[0] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/house-price-data-...

Well, as long as we are compare to the U.K. also, Canadian and American real estate often look like a bargain.

The thing about Canada is that Nafta makes it easy to move south, while in the U.K. going to the USA is not as simple.

Which is extraordinarily frustrating given how close our cultures our and the amount of talented developers who'd like to take a role in the US.

I just had an interview fall through because I'm a Brit and it would be difficult to get me over to SF due to the visa system. Maybe I should look for a dev job in Canada? :P

I think Canada is pretty easy for UK/Ireland. I know a few people who moved there for work with relatively little planning and within a couple of years, they've got permanent residence. They moved for standard big company jobs too, it's not like they're experts in their field or anything.

Yeah, I'm definitely thinking about it. I speak English and French plus am legally qualified and can program so I think I should have a good shot!