People say the difference is much greater than $50k, but I think it's often overblown. You have the top few companies with crazy stock compensations on top of higher base salaries, but I'm not getting into those companies anyway. Some places can compete with that, but not as many as simply moving to the states, especially with no degree, and just automatically making so much more. It would be ladder climbing, and I don't care enough about hocking more bs products at people that I'd put so much of myself into that.
If you took off 3 months to go leetcode the return on investment is there, and you could make it into those companies. You can get work visas based on years of experience alone without a degree, and google et all don't discriminate on not having a degree either. On top of that as a lucky canadian, you get one of the easiest work visas to get in the world, the TN visa. It might not work in this recessionary environment, but in a year or two when it passes you'll be all ready to go to get the promotion of a lifetime.
Vancouver is not a city beyond it's tiny downtown. It's much like SF bay that way, vast reams of suburbia with a commuter rail train system that barely services vast swaths of the city.
Get out of your comfort zone, and you will do amazing. I'm rooting for you.
And what is that sacrifice? Well, firstly I absolutely do not want to live in a downtown anywhere. In some ways, they're just as boring as the burbs, except maybe Portland. I like being in a more low key but still dense and wooded area near everything I need and close to the downtown. I have friends here, access to nature/mountains, bars, restaurants, fiber, it's chill. If I made more money, I'd use it to live here, if housing was more reasonable, or rent more slace if I felt that was a sensible move.
Not to say I won't move or even move out of country, maybe even for a job, but I'm not arbitrarily chasing career numbers, it hollows a person. Probably best would be a small team remotely for a U.S company billing in USD