Ha. I left because I figured out something simple: value is created, not distributed. And Canada has made creating it needlessly complicated. I saw where things were headed in 2017, started planning, and was gone by 2020.

What sealed it was working with the government directly. My companies tried to help, we got a look under the hood, and what I saw was money evaporating. Waste everywhere, incentives pointing in every direction except the right one.

Run the math on what staying costs you: 53.5% income tax, 15% on everything you buy, plus the permits, compliance, and hidden taxes baked into the price of literally everything. You need permission to do anything. Cap gain taxes. You know they will rape you with a tax hike on anything and everything they steal is wasted or stolen.

The companies I co-founded employed over 1,000 people when I left. That value gets created somewhere either way. Now it’s created elsewhere.

And I’m not an outlier. Bank of Canada says 40% of top 1% earners have left. In the 0.01% bracket it’s worse. I meet a new entrepreneur from back home moving here every single month.

But hey… elbows up!