Is Canada Really That Bad ?

Yes, it is. I came to do masters here after studying in the US for my long term girl as well.

Worst place you could be: career wise, weather wise, taxes wise, standard of living wise. Nothing. There is nothing. Large-scale gatekeeping and blatant proud nepotism ruins your career. Government and oligopolies screw consumers over and over, nothing is affordable. 

Do not come here. If you are a US citizen you could come, learn by yourself, and still return.

But if you are an international student in the US, absolutely do not make a mistake of leaving the US for Canada.

I have verbally landed a couple banking/PE positions in the US but for the firm to not sponsor H1B cause of the lottery to start (not Canadian, no TN). Cannot work there and have been unemployed for a few months post graduation here. 

I repeat: DO NOT COME!

I work at the top ib in Toronto and 1/3 of us are trying to recruit in the u.s atm. That should tell you something

I think one of my cousins is still in banking at a big bank in the Toronto office. Last I spoke to him pre-pandemic, he hates his income cap and feels severely underpaid. Got a sick loft downtown though.

I have lived in Toronto for over 35 years and am finally moving with my wife and kids down to the U.S. permanently. Toronto 20 years ago was not like it is today - people are really struggling.

I would rather live in Detroit (which is terrible) than live in Toronto.

No matter how many times you edit the post expecting positive experience, it won’t happen.

You are clinging on any hope, let me tell you. There is none. 
Maybe 5-10 years ago, it was alright.

It is neither affordable, nor does it have any good career path.

The teller dude above literally explained your future, moved for a partner and figured out how fucked up it is.

If you still want to suffer then that’s up to you. Regret a few years later.

I guess we all need some big regrets in life.

Everyone in the Toronto office keeps trying to transfer to the US. That’s all you need to know. 

If you are not connected to the Toronto establishment, it is a bad time. I say this as someone who is and have seen the contrast between ease of finding roles for folks on both sides of the curtain.

In general though the cost of living is crazy, and high finance opportunities are few and far between. If you are a Director in IB you are moving into areas and houses today that were middle class as recently as the early 2000s. It is MATERIALLY worse than it was 10+ years ago. If it was not for personal reasons, I would have left for another job market.

Also what people need to realize is that... smart Canadians could see the cracks forming in 2015-2020. And if they did nothing, like 99% of them did, their lives are much worse than if they had left to the US or elsewhere. Now, it's obvious to even the most normie blue-pilled Canadian what the trajectory of the country is. Where will Canada be in 2030? 2040? My guess is a mixture between San Francisco's Tenderloin and the slums of Johannesburg and New Delhi, with crime rates and desperation and food insecurity and drug overdoses and suicides in Canada surpassing the US or the rest of the developed world.  

Canada is not a good place to have a career or raise your kids anymore, and it never will be again. If you have assets like real estate, sell them and use the capital to go elsewhere, like the US or even places like Europe or Southeast Asia. If you're broke and want to build a life, go elsewhere. Canada is not a place for that. 

If you're a Canadian there right now, wake the fuck up. Get out. 

Yes, it is bad.

Taxes are insanely high, cost of living is insanely high, government actively gatekeeps everything and funds oligopolies to screw consumers over, Toronto doesn’t even have a good subway system, the list goes on.

I grew up in Toronto but I don’t see myself staying here unless a lot of things change.

MY RECOMMENDATION TO YOU: MONTREAL

Don’t need to speak French, plenty of IB roles, cheap cost of living, good subway, aesthetically pretty city with pretty women (not applicable for you I know), and arguably one of the most fun cities I’ve had the pleasure of visiting—and I’ve been to most of the major cities in NA and EU. Only downside is I hate French Canadians, and they hate you too.

LOL Canada sucks ass. I used to have coworkers that lived in Toronto who shared all of the above points from FEINFEINFEIN and more. Their weed also blows compared to the variety of stuff we have in the US so they don't even have that as a selling point yet it's something Canadians will constantly bring up when they're stateside as some sort of justification for how they're better (because that + "free" healthcare is literally all they have).

Toronto is a small city, maybe a tier 2 or 2.5 if you look North America wide but pretty diverse and international. TLDR: don't come here for career opportunities or or NY like comp, come here for a decent mix of hustle and chill. 

My life is pretty chill man, though I probably wouldn't have liked it as much if I started my career here, the trajectories and comp are nowhere near what a New York, London, Hong Kong etc. can offer (see my comment above about being tier 2 or 2.5). I would know having worked in two of those cities. I'd say the most talented finance Canadians head to the US, and most of the bitterness you'll see here comes from those who just don't have the talent/ability to make the jump from a tier 2/2.5 to a global. 

I enjoy what a fairly young and diverse city it is. I live on the lake, bike to work in the summers, play rec soccer and beach vball over the week, depending on the time of year catch a hockey/basketball/baseball game. There's a lot of green space, and summer is really chilling by the lake with friends grabbing drinks or whatever. Lots of biking options if you like that, and I love going to the islands in the summer to bike and chill on the beach.

Nightlife is decent, very bougie in the King/Queen West strip and a bit more varied in other parts with a pretty thriving indie/local music scene (hip hop, jazz, blues, rock blah blah). The food scene downtown is more Instagram than palate friendly but we have tons of really good ethnic food. Not as much variety as say New York, but a surprising number of options.

My Cons: real estate is very overpriced, taxes are high, the job market right now is super soft, travel distance (everywhere is far - Europe, Caribbean etc.) but probably not much more so than New York, the politics are becoming very US like (the loudest voices, grifting etc.) which I really dislike.

Yes Canada sucks. Crazy cost of living with pathetic salaries, cold weather, terrible public transit and traffic (in Toronto). You get paid like you are in Europe without having all the great food, cheap travel to so many different countries, history and culture etc.

Most people with any sort of real aspirations end up leaving- the ones that don’t are either not capable of leaving Canada, or are unwilling to do so just for family reasons. Nonetheless, from a pure career standpoint it’s a no brainer to move.

Absolutely.

I don't even work in finance and I don't even live in Canada but I got extended family in Toronto.

Trash pay, trash tax, socialist healthcare, some of my friends have described it as worse than Gotham city. When i was there in the downtown i heard sirens once every five minutes. Crackheads roam the streets. Government is dysfunctional and is actively trying to ruin the country with liberalist policies so left Im surprised they don't just rename Vancouver "Left Toronto" and Toronto "Left Quebec". Absolutely terrible economy and trash safety, seeing some crazy things happening on the TTC. Absolutely terribly underfunded public services. It is a really unique place where everything is terrible but tax is 50%, and the literal only benefit is crappy socialist healthcare, and this is honestly something I cannot even begin to understand.

Going to Canada is basically the equivalent of career suicide, tbh. I have lived in the UK and HK and visited many places of the world, but Canada stands alone in that it is an absolute joke of a country & would be better served through US annexation.

Yeah all jokes (well I'm half joking only) aside you will probably find happiness there with your bf and hopefully establish a decent career there. I will give this to Canada - the air is decently fresh (as in, there is less pollution).

Dual Citizen, with parents that grew up in a completely different country, before immigrating to both Canada and the US. 

Canada is not a 3rd world country.  Anybody who thinks that should visit where my parents came from, or any of Pakistan,Bangladesh, or Afghanistan lol. 

HOWEVER--

1.  It's probably the anglo country with the worst future prospects (or tied with NZ), and most likely the anglo country with the worst QOL. 

2.  Professional opportunities pale in comparison to the US, which is the same case with Australia, but Canada is right next door.  

3.  Housing is fucking insane in the major cities, and more importantly, it became bad at an astonishingly fast pace.

4.  Healthcare is not like what It used to be with crazy wait times, among other issues.  IMO, for me, this was the only selling point that Canada had over the US.  With it gone, Canada doesn't offer anything that america doesn't already offer in abundance.  

I like Canada.  More slow paced than the US, but its def a more blue collar vibe, and being a professional isn't the move there the same way it is here in America.  If Canada doesn't change course however, expect it to be a nation where generational wealth will decide your destiny.  Native anglo canadians at this rate will also stop breeding, so Canada will likely become the first post nation state in existence (at least as a modern construct, I'm aware such polities existed in the past).

Lots of good comments here with a mix of hard data and anecdotal evidence to support the position. Fundamentally, I believe that GDP per capita is the best measure to compare growth and it takes nothing more than a glance at the chart to see how poorly Canada has done over the last decade. Over the last 10 years, GDP per capita in Canada grew overall by an impressive 4.4% or at a CAGR of 0.4% while in the US, it grew overall 46% or at a CAGR of 3.9%. In 2014, GDP per capital in Canada was only US$4K lower than in the US, the gap has now increased to US$27K. 

The underlying reasons for the lack of wealth creation (lack of innovation / productivity growth, over reliance on real estate as a growth engine, change in immigration system, housing unnafordability) are well known and explored at length , but it's also clear that those are not going to get better any time soon. I struggle to see how the wealth gap with the US doesn't continue to expand over the next decade or two. The comment above using Wayne Gretzky quote about skating where the puck is going is absolutely bang on, it's crystal clear that the Canadian environment is not going to be a positive one for the foreseeable future, especially for younger (ish) people. And yes, Canada is still a better place to live than the vast majority of the world, but it's also incredibly frustrating to look at the mess that was created over the last 10 years given all of the main problems are self-inflicted (and 100% foreseable). 

Here are my thoughts...I grew up in Canada and just moved back and spent ~7 years total in the US probably over time. My wife is American. Here are some things to thing about, and why we chose to live in Canada.

• I would not live here if I was young and looking to progress quickly career wise. The fact is, the US is simply MUCH larger and has the world's best cap markets. Nothing comes close to it. Your surface area for "luck" is much higher in the US.
• Cost of living in a *good* city like Vancouver or Toronto is indeed high relative to jobs available. This is irrelevant for me because I am self-employed. Almost all of my NW is in Amercian private companies, so I guess that says something about Canada lol.
• Taxes are actually very, very good if you have ~$8m - $12m and do not derive income from a salary. Probably not relevant to most of this forum as the forum is mainly young people making salary-type income as opposed to being late in career and deriving income from equity/not needing cash on an ongoing basis. Taxes are so good here that Canada is known as a bit of a tax haven. In effect, we can compound income much much more cleanly without tax interference. You probably need ~$8m+ for the math to math here though.
• I can go to events and not feel like I'm going to get shot. When I lived in the US, there was a shooting at a mall literally ~15 min walk from me at one point! This is insane to me. We also had things like people having guns/threatening to shoot up the work place etc VERY often. Far far more than you would in Canada lol. Given this, I really didn't feel like having kids in the US.
• The healthcare stuff is hilariously overblown. I have used the Canadian, Mexican and American systems now extensively. In the US I run a maxed out plan that covers everything and costs me ~12,000 USD out of pocket per year. It was good/fast but probably not worth it if you make less than ~$300k - $400k USD per year. The Canadian healthcare system is fine. My grandpa just had a mild heart attack and we used the public system NP. I could easily go private or take him to the US if I thought it was worth it, but it's not. I have an ongoing health issue, and looking at the time to get a specialist...was about ~1.3x longer in Canada. Not bad at all. I still have my US insurance active and if I felt it was a big deal, I'd just...go to the US, but I don't think it's worth the drive/flight. 
• The city I live in is very nice and walkable. I love walkable cities. I will never live in a non-walkable city again! 
• Love the available of high quality food/stuff in general here. I am really into watches for example, and the local watch meet up group has a ton of great collectors I've quickly become friends with. The local YPO + EO groups are strong too. 
• I didn't used to think I cared about "diversity" much, but having interacted with and lived in some middle of nowhere type places with 90%+ of one race...I absolutely do care. Those people end up being so fucking stupid it's mind blowing lol. I really did not comprehend how nice it was being able to instantly connect with people because I am familiar with their culture. For example, I grew up in a neighborhood with a TON of chinese + korean people. Now when I speak to my suppliers in China, I "get" their culture and dont do the dumb shit people usually do when they visit them or try negotiating with them, etc. 
• A weird amount of $$$ is here. Mostly foreign money parked here. But with that, a lot of our LP $s are from Canada.
• My whole extended family is here as well and has been since  the 1970s. Having kids soon so this is helpful lol
• The political environment and crazy nutjobs are simply not a problem in Canada. Common sense things like allowing abortions, gay marriage, etc are non-issues here. There's no insane republican/democrat political garbage here and it feels way way less toxic. Yes we have some lame politicians, but nobody is saying crazy unhinged things and our leader is not some old man 3 coughs away from death. Do I like the super liberal spending as of late? No, it bugs me a lot. But it's way way better than the US. There's also no stupid ass woke stuff here b/c the immigrant density is higher and they tend to be socially conservative.