I moved to Canada from Silicon valley in California.
California has pretty high taxes, but Canada has REALLY high taxes. It doesn't take that high of a salary to get up into the 50% tax bracket. Also, keep in mind that the sales tax in Ontario is 8% and that is on top of the GST (Goods and Services Tax) tax of 7% for a whopping 15% sales tax. That, remember, comes out of your NET earnings. There are few tax havens and gov't fees everywhere for everything under the sun.
Housing here in the greater Toronto area is not cheap and is getting more expensive by the day. A small place with almost no yard will set you back about$250k to $300k.
Sadly, with all these super high taxes, here in Toronto they can't even manage to keep the roads in fair shape. Pothole city.
The politics here in general are rather lefty, especially Toronto. If you have any political objectivity, you'll quickly note how left wing the CBC (based in Toronto) is. What this means for you is astounding amounts of social programs with absolutely no thought as to how to drive an economy to pay for them. Fortunately, the NDP (Nutcake Democratic Party) is currently rather marginalized.
If you are left wing, you'll like most of Canada. You wouldn't enjoy Alberta so much - it's more right wing.
If you enjoy Anti-Americanism at its best, give Quebec a try.
I recently heard from the US Consulate that Ontario has 250k Americans.
What about corporate culture here? I've worked around the world and corporate culture is pretty much the same everywhere you go. Business is business. There's no big company group hug here if that's what you're looking for. Comapany's are looking to make profit here just as much as anywhere else in the world.
Canada does have lots of freeloaders who don't pay taxes and milk the gov't programs.
Canada also has tons of National and Provincial parks. I wish I had time to go to more of them - they're big, beautiful, and generally well kept and well run.
Try it, you may like it here. At the very least, you'll learn more about the US by being out of it for awhile. Of course, after awhile, you'll also learn to ignore the constant anti-American whining here. Canadians have some serious identity issues and I've often thought that they define themselves not by the fact that they are Canadians, but by the fact that they are not Americans. Declaring what you are not doesn't tell you much about who you are.
Re:Personal experiences with ADHD, mood swings, et
on
Working with ADHD?
·
· Score: 1
Ack! When pasting in a long URL into the Comment box that wraps onto the next line, a space gets inserted. Watch the magical moving space in the word Abstracts: http://www.wpic.pitt.edu/stanley/3rdbi pconf/Abstra cts/poster_j.htm ttp://www.wpic.pitt.edu/stanley/ 3rdbipconf/Abstrac ts/poster_j.htm tp://www.wpic.pitt.edu/stanley/3r dbipconf/Abstract s/poster_j.htm
It doesn't appear to make any difference whether I choose Plain Old Text or HTML. Perhaps I'm missing something obvious here, but using
had no apparent effect.
So, uh, thanks for the URL.
Re:Personal experiences with ADHD, mood swings, et
on
Working with ADHD?
·
· Score: 1
A space crept into that URL somehows. This works: http://www.wpic.pitt.edu/stanley/3rdbipcon f/Abstra cts/poster_j.htm Thanks for that post.
That is interesting at the very least. I've never heard of Cloningerâ(TM)s Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ). Anyone taken that?
After the 'Results' come the article's 'Conclusions' which make me a tad uncomfortable: "Conclusions: These results suggest that the MBTI extroversion/introversion, sensing/intuitive, and judging/perceiving dichotomies, and the TPQ novelty seeking novelty seeking scale and its subscales can differentiate unipolar and bipolar patients."
The Myers Briggs folks go through great length to stress that their test is only an indicator of types that are not good or bad or better or worse. I'm not so sure I'd want a potential employer thinking, hmmm, ENTP eh? no jobs for that bipolar freak of nature!
Re:Personal experiences with ADHD, mood swings, et
on
Working with ADHD?
·
· Score: 1
I live in Canada now and it's no sun haven. After living in the SF bay area, it's hard to live here. Sunnier climates sure help though. I hate having to worry about clothing, rain, etc.
Re:Personal experiences with ADHD, mood swings, et
on
Working with ADHD?
·
· Score: 1
"There is a high correlation for ADD / ADHD / bipolar and people with high Intuitive and Perceiving preferences, and a higher Extroverted tendency for bipolars when they are on a high."
Thanks for the response - I have always been incredibly interested in the matching of meyers briggs (they are mother/daughter btw) test results with various psychological analysis and medications -especially as they relate to ADD. For those not familiar with it, check out http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory. html for a good synopsis of the personality type indicators for the MB test. I've taken the test 3 times over five years and the result has always been entp, however the underlying scores for them changed the last time I took the test. Mine currently breaks down as follows:
E - strong Extrovert score over Introvert N - strong iNtuitive score over Sensing T - mild Thinking score over Feeling P - super strong Perceiving score over Judging
The second time that I took the test the counselor said that he had never seen someone score zero points in the Judging preference and all the points in the Perceiving preference. My first 2 times taking the test showed much lower E and T scores. I attribute the increase in those areas to maturing and generally growing up. I'm in my 30's now. Has anyone out there seen any formal studies on personality types and ADD? I'm sure many folks with adult ADD have wondered, do I have a disorder or merely high Intuitive and Perceiving preferences? Either way, it certainly doesn't help one feel better to have NP preferences labelled a syndrome. One could easily come up with syndrome names for SJ's too: BBS - Brutally Boring Syndrome or CDS - Creativity Defecit Syndrome.
Taking ritalin (long time ago) and dexedrine (when I get around to it) push my P score alot farther down so that the J can at least come into view. I'd really like to try adderall or concerta or strattera. I was formally diagnosed with adult ADD nearly 15 years ago. It's been a difficult road to navigate. Sometimes it feels great and sometimes it feels hopeless. Life is not a race, it's a roller coaster - either going up or going down, but never flat!
The biggest problem that I have is with remembering to take the fsking pills again and again and again and again and aaaaaahhhh! I wish that I could enable the medication via a cronjob so that I wouldn't forget when I was at work.
Say, speaking of the tests, have you ever done the DISC test? I did that one about 9 years ago and found it helpful too - although similar to the MB tests.
Re:Personal experiences with ADHD, mood swings, et
on
Working with ADHD?
·
· Score: 1
Great posting Smithy! Thanks much. I'd be interested knowing if anyone has feedback on the following (some of which were mentioned above):
ritalin with respect to dry mouth. 6 mos after starting ritalin my dentist nearly jumped out of his skin when my formerly almost perfect teeth had 14 cavities!
dexedrine - switched to this from ritalin b/c the drymouth wasn't bad with it. Still have crash feeling at end of day - taking SR capsules helps to not forget dosages, but I still miss some.
adderall - haven't tried this yet, but friends in the states who have swear by it. Canada=Lame with respect to drug approval timelines.
-hanging out in SARonto.
Slashdot Mirror
I moved to Canada from Silicon valley in California.
California has pretty high taxes, but Canada has REALLY high taxes. It doesn't take that high of a salary to get up into the 50% tax bracket. Also, keep in mind that the sales tax in Ontario is 8% and that is on top of the GST (Goods and Services Tax) tax of 7% for a whopping 15% sales tax. That, remember, comes out of your NET earnings. There are few tax havens and gov't fees everywhere for everything under the sun.
Housing here in the greater Toronto area is not cheap and is getting more expensive by the day. A small place with almost no yard will set you back about$250k to $300k.
Sadly, with all these super high taxes, here in Toronto they can't even manage to keep the roads in fair shape. Pothole city.
The politics here in general are rather lefty, especially Toronto. If you have any political objectivity, you'll quickly note how left wing the CBC (based in Toronto) is. What this means for you is astounding amounts of social programs with absolutely no thought as to how to drive an economy to pay for them. Fortunately, the NDP (Nutcake Democratic Party) is currently rather marginalized.
If you are left wing, you'll like most of Canada. You wouldn't enjoy Alberta so much - it's more right wing.
If you enjoy Anti-Americanism at its best, give Quebec a try.
I recently heard from the US Consulate that Ontario has 250k Americans.
What about corporate culture here? I've worked around the world and corporate culture is pretty much the same everywhere you go. Business is business. There's no big company group hug here if that's what you're looking for. Comapany's are looking to make profit here just as much as anywhere else in the world.
Canada does have lots of freeloaders who don't pay taxes and milk the gov't programs.
Canada also has tons of National and Provincial parks. I wish I had time to go to more of them - they're big, beautiful, and generally well kept and well run.
Try it, you may like it here. At the very least, you'll learn more about the US by being out of it for awhile. Of course, after awhile, you'll also learn to ignore the constant anti-American whining here. Canadians have some serious identity issues and I've often thought that they define themselves not by the fact that they are Canadians, but by the fact that they are not Americans. Declaring what you are not doesn't tell you much about who you are.
http://www.wpic.pitt.edu/stanley/3rdb
ttp://www.wpic.pitt.edu/stanley
tp://www.wpic.pitt.edu/stanley/3
It doesn't appear to make any difference whether I choose Plain Old Text or HTML. Perhaps I'm missing something obvious here, but using
A space crept into that URL somehows. This works:n f/Abstra cts/poster_j.htm
http://www.wpic.pitt.edu/stanley/3rdbipco
Thanks for that post.
That is interesting at the very least. I've never heard of Cloningerâ(TM)s Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ). Anyone taken that?
After the 'Results' come the article's 'Conclusions' which make me a tad uncomfortable:
"Conclusions: These results suggest that the MBTI extroversion/introversion, sensing/intuitive, and judging/perceiving dichotomies, and the TPQ novelty seeking novelty seeking scale and its subscales can differentiate unipolar and bipolar patients."
The Myers Briggs folks go through great length to stress that their test is only an indicator of types that are not good or bad or better or worse. I'm not so sure I'd want a potential employer thinking, hmmm, ENTP eh? no jobs for that bipolar freak of nature!
I live in Canada now and it's no sun haven. After living in the SF bay area, it's hard to live here. Sunnier climates sure help though. I hate having to worry about clothing, rain, etc.
"There is a high correlation for ADD / ADHD / bipolar and people with high Intuitive and Perceiving preferences, and a higher Extroverted tendency for bipolars when they are on a high."
Thanks for the response - I have always been incredibly interested in the matching of meyers briggs (they are mother/daughter btw) test results with various psychological analysis and medications -especially as they relate to ADD. For those not familiar with it, check out http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory
E - strong Extrovert score over Introvert
N - strong iNtuitive score over Sensing
T - mild Thinking score over Feeling
P - super strong Perceiving score over Judging
The second time that I took the test the counselor said that he had never seen someone score zero points in the Judging preference and all the points in the Perceiving preference. My first 2 times taking the test showed much lower E and T scores. I attribute the increase in those areas to maturing and generally growing up. I'm in my 30's now. Has anyone out there seen any formal studies on personality types and ADD? I'm sure many folks with adult ADD have wondered, do I have a disorder or merely high Intuitive and Perceiving preferences? Either way, it certainly doesn't help one feel better to have NP preferences labelled a syndrome. One could easily come up with syndrome names for SJ's too: BBS - Brutally Boring Syndrome or CDS - Creativity Defecit Syndrome.
Taking ritalin (long time ago) and dexedrine (when I get around to it) push my P score alot farther down so that the J can at least come into view. I'd really like to try adderall or concerta or strattera. I was formally diagnosed with adult ADD nearly 15 years ago. It's been a difficult road to navigate. Sometimes it feels great and sometimes it feels hopeless. Life is not a race, it's a roller coaster - either going up or going down, but never flat!
The biggest problem that I have is with remembering to take the fsking pills again and again and again and again and aaaaaahhhh! I wish that I could enable the medication via a cronjob so that I wouldn't forget when I was at work.
Say, speaking of the tests, have you ever done the DISC test? I did that one about 9 years ago and found it helpful too - although similar to the MB tests.
Great posting Smithy! Thanks much. I'd be interested knowing if anyone has feedback on the following (some of which were mentioned above):
ritalin with respect to dry mouth. 6 mos after starting ritalin my dentist nearly jumped out of his skin when my formerly almost perfect teeth had 14 cavities!
dexedrine - switched to this from ritalin b/c the drymouth wasn't bad with it. Still have crash feeling at end of day - taking SR capsules helps to not forget dosages, but I still miss some.
adderall - haven't tried this yet, but friends in the states who have swear by it. Canada=Lame with respect to drug approval timelines.
-hanging out in SARonto.