Edit: Also, the population of Canada has grown significantly (see: Century Initiative)
As a percentage of total population, net migration is the same today as it was in 2011, and lower than it was 1991-2011.
Canada was dealing with a brain drain well before TFWPs and LMIAs were a thing - all the way back to Thomas Edison's family.
The actual number is 20% of all Canadian immigrants leave Canada within 25 years of landing [0], and this rate is 2x higher amongst Canadian immigrants with a doctorate and is elevated amongst Canadian immigrants classified as "business and finance managers, ICT professionals, engineers, and architecture managers" [1].
And speaking anecdotally amongst the Asian American/Canadian community - most who I've known who landed in Canada as skilled immigrants left Canada for the US on a TN visa once they naturalized (even with Trump in office). In a number of cases, they chose Canada simply because they couldn't make it to America on their first try.
[0] - https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/one-in-five-immigrants-a...
[1] - https://forcitizenship.ca/article/highly-skilled-immigrants-...
FTFY
Then they start pressuring you to also move to the US.
So seeing that startups get drawn
1.3 million Canadian-born live outside Canada, or about 3% of the Canadian population. 3.2 million American-born live outside the US, 1% of the US population.
The Canadian government's statistics as of the 2021 census (which the article cites) are slightly different: 794K Canadians by birth living in the US, 61% of the 1.3 million Canadian-born living abroad. <https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2026013...>
How are provinces supposed to manage their finances long term if much of Canada's industry and talent leaves?
Canada's economic complexity index [0] is on par with Serbia [1] and Bulgaria [2].
[0] - https://atlas.hks.harvard.edu/countries/124/export-complexit...
[1] - https://atlas.hks.harvard.edu/countries/688/export-complexit...
[2] - https://atlas.hks.harvard.edu/countries/100/export-complexit...
I've heard it said that Canada is three mining companies standing on each other wearing a trenchcoat.
Either Canada would immediately be the largest state and deliver a massive House majority to one obvious party or, if the provinces joined separately, an overwhelming Senatorial majority to that same party. I don't think that's desirable for the US.
Personally, Ben, I also think that US foreign policy of massive encirclement on the globe through mutual-defense agreements was a pincer move of super-strategic performance considering the ramifications it has had on our real opponents. Canada, I think, is best dealt with as a close ally whose borders represent a point our enemies cannot cross. We don't want their politics and I think we'd love to have their workers and they'd like the remittances. My position on this is like Ronald Reagan's or George H.W. Bush's.
Here's Reagan (on Mexico, but I think it works - we should expand the TN to be transferable to an LPR and weaken the labor requirement so that you get it so long as you're not a criminal):
> Why don’t we work out some recognition of our mutual problems and make it possible for them to come here legally, with a work permit, and then while they are working and earning here, they pay taxes here? And when they want to go back, they can go back, and they can cross. And open the border both ways, by understanding their problems.
To say nothing of the fact that, free of our federal government and its laws, it may well be possible to have Canada run massive shipyards, nuclear power, and drone factories in a manner that we have painted ourselves out of. Allowing for an independent jurisdiction in this way gives the West a lot of freedom.
Americans on either side of politics think that Canada is full of super-leftists (and there is no shortage), and Canadians love repeating the "Canadian Conservatives are more leftist than American Democrats" nonsense. But were Canada a part of the US in 2016, Trump would have won AB, SK, and quite possibly enough of the GTA (the parts that loved Rob Ford, and as "Ford Country" has repeatedly won the province for Doug Ford) to win ON, the province most resembling MI/WI/PA, the three states that Trump unexpectedly won the election with. 2024? Very good chance he also takes some/all of BC, MB, NS, and NL.
Going back to southern Ontario, without the NDP-voting north, it is even more a swing state that the GOP has a chance to win.
Prohibit new dense housing and slowly start deconstructing the dense office space. At the same time, promote remote work with tax incentives.
A big difference I would say between a place like Tokyo and most urbanist cities in NA is that public transit is overwhelmingly the default here. My experience is that even in Vancouver or Montreal, it wouldn't be strange to have an acquaintance or relative who lives in one of the extended suburbs or a neighboring city, and for whom driving is default.
However, properly designed cities like Houston, TX are well-poised to take advantage of self-driving cars. Very soon car ownership won't be necessary even in sparse cities, but with all the advantages of having a lot of living space and cheap housing.
Nevertheless, I imagine this is an unusually salient issue for us. I imagine for the average Canadian emigrant, the fact that the US offers a greater quantity of better quality, higher paying, jobs, is a much bigger contributor than urban planning.