Sir Real👁‍🗨

71% of Waterloo's best engineers leave Canada (UWaterloo SE Class of 2022 graduate survey). And nobody riots. In any other country, a 71% talent export rate would be a national emergency. In Canada, it's Tuesday. The problem isn't the people who leave. They're rational. The US pays 2-3x more, taxes less, and builds things that matter. The problem is the people who stay and never ask why the system is designed to make leaving the rational choice. Canada doesn't have a brain drain problem. It has a demand problem. Nobody demands better. Not from the universities. Not from the employers. Not from the government. The best leave. The rest adjust. The cycle continues. Every country gets the talent retention rate it deserves.

I have a Canadian friend who is now an internal medicine doctor. He tried to get into med school in Canada - was rejected not because of grades but because he's a white male - so he went abroad. He then did his residency in Miami. He returned to Canada and applied to be a doctor in his home country. Was rejected. He was just hired by a huge hospital outside of Boston where he'll make triple the salary. His wife said when she gets pregnant, they'll have their baby in the US. And this is how brain drain happens. Canada does not nurture/protect its talent. This is why the country is bleeding intelligent/successful people - and they're relocating to America en masse.

The same two things are said repeatedly by CEOs and politicians and news media. But never at the same time. 1) AI will automate millions of jobs out of existence. 2) America must bring in unlimited H-1B's. Both cannot be true. They don't make any sense together.