Breadcrumb Path Hyperlinks
EconomyWork
Alternatives to deliver residence Canadian all-stars and poach American expertise don’t occur day by day, however Trump — along with his cuts to analysis funding and regressive social insurance policies — has emerged for some as a purpose to go away
Revealed Might 12, 2025 • Final up to date 10 hours in the past • 13 minute learn
It can save you this text by registering free of charge right here. Or sign-in in case you have an account.
Article content material
Billy Berg can’t fairly put a finger on what it was about New York, however whereas rising up in Toronto, he all the time imagined he would stay there for a number of years earlier than heading again to Canada to get on along with his life.
Article content material
Article content material
Life had different concepts. He utilized to 2 enterprise colleges, each in New York, and inside hours of arriving at Columbia College, his plan to show round 18 months later with a level in hand went out the window.
Commercial 2
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
Subscribe now to learn the most recent information in your metropolis and throughout Canada.
Unique articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O’Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Each day content material from Monetary Occasions, the world’s main international enterprise publication.Limitless on-line entry to learn articles from Monetary Publish, Nationwide Publish and 15 information websites throughout Canada with one account.Nationwide Publish ePaper, an digital reproduction of the print version to view on any machine, share and touch upon.Each day puzzles, together with the New York Occasions Crossword.
SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES
Subscribe now to learn the most recent information in your metropolis and throughout Canada.
Unique articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O’Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Each day content material from Monetary Occasions, the world’s main international enterprise publication.Limitless on-line entry to learn articles from Monetary Publish, Nationwide Publish and 15 information websites throughout Canada with one account.Nationwide Publish ePaper, an digital reproduction of the print version to view on any machine, share and touch upon.Each day puzzles, together with the New York Occasions Crossword.
REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES
Create an account or sign up to proceed along with your studying expertise.
Entry articles from throughout Canada with one account.Share your ideas and be a part of the dialog within the feedback.Take pleasure in further articles monthly.Get e-mail updates out of your favorite authors.
THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.
Create an account or sign up to proceed along with your studying expertise.
Entry articles from throughout Canada with one accountShare your ideas and be a part of the dialog within the commentsEnjoy further articles per monthGet e-mail updates out of your favorite authors
Signal In or Create an Account
or
Article content material
New York had an indescribable vitality to it, a brash, pulsing, work-hard-and-reap-the-spoils spirit that was intoxicating, so leaving city after barely getting a style of it was unthinkable. Town didn’t care who you have been or the place you have been from, Berg mentioned. All it requested was to your dedication, so he and his Canadian partner totally dedicated at work — and at play.
Work
Thanks for signing up!
Article content material
“New York is an unbelievable place,” he mentioned. “The hustle tradition, the flexibility to only make one thing out of nothing, when you’re prepared to place your shoulder to it and push, that could be a purely American trait. It exists elsewhere to some extent, however it’s in its crystalline kind right here.”
Article content material
An aerial shot of the Higher West Facet of New York Metropolis. The pulsing vitality of the town and the opporutnities it supplied have been an excessive amount of for Canadian expat Billy Berg (a pseudonym) to cross up. Photograph by Getty Pictures/iStockphoto
Now of their 50s, the Canadian expats are emblematic of an American Dream come true, with high-powered jobs, American-born youngsters and an American seashore home to indicate for it.
However it’s a dream that Berg, who’s a senior govt with a shopper expertise firm and requested a pseudonym for the needs of this text since popping one’s head above the parapet to talk candidly throughout Donald Trump’s reign could carry some attendant dangers, is discovering more and more tough to reconcile along with his Canadian self.
In any case, he’s nonetheless only a man from Toronto who helps the Maple Leafs, kicks off his stump speeches at tech conferences by introducing himself as Canadian regardless of being a twin citizen now, and views common well being care as a human proper and the American perception in the proper to bear arms as unfathomably bonkers.
Article content material
The hustle tradition, the flexibility to only make one thing out of nothing, when you’re prepared to place your shoulder to it and push, that could be a purely American trait
Billy Berg (a pseudonym), Canadian expat in New York Metropolis
However what he finds most troubling at the moment, other than Trump’s anti-Canadian rhetoric, commerce warfare sabre-rattling, deportations with out due course of, mass firings of civil servants, defunding of universities, social media trolling and stock-market-roiling financial coverage, is {that a} majority of Individuals voted for an encore efficiency.
“What Trump has introduced with him is that this wave of mean-spirited, divisive rhetoric, and it will get assist from throughout the nation as a result of the Trumpy officers who behave like him are those who’re profitable, and it’s extremely disheartening to see,” he mentioned. “In some unspecified time in the future, it’s important to say to your self, ‘Look, that is what the nation needs as a result of, at some degree, it’s who they’re,’ and when you settle for that, then you might want to ask your self, ‘Do I need to proceed to stay right here?’”
Berg doesn’t have a solution to that query, at the very least not but, however leaving New York for Toronto or someplace in Europe is one dialog he and his spouse preserve circling again to, and they don’t seem to be the one expats wrestling with the sick feeling that the USA they thought they knew has modified.
Article content material
Canadian expat Billy Berg, not his actual actual identify, walks in New York Metropolis, the place he has lived and labored since attending Columbia’s enterprise faculty. The present political local weather within the U.S. has brought on him to consider returning residence to Canada. Photograph by Handout /Billy Berg
Repatriating go-getters from what’s perceived as hostile territory and maybe encouraging a few of their disillusioned American buddies to return alongside to assist rebuild Canada may very well be simply what the nation must get an edge, to not point out the financial enhance that bringing their capital may present.
Article content material
Greater than 800,000 Canadians stay within the U.S. Some moved for larger wages and decrease taxes, others went for the climate and others within the current previous simply didn’t like Justin Trudeau a lot. On the flip facet, some Individuals have moved the opposite means, and Canada has benefited from their presence.
In response to the U.S. Census Bureau, 126,340 Canadians made the leap south in 2022, with Florida and Texas the most well-liked locations. Three years later, Canada is teetering on the point of a Trump-triggered recession, whereas Prime Minister Mark Carney has mentioned the nation must construct “large,” construct “daring” and construct “now.”
What Trump has introduced with him is that this wave of mean-spirited, divisive rhetoric
Canadian expat in New York Metropolis
Berg, for his half, has been on a roll in tech. However Canadian expats have been profitable, creating wealth and making breakthroughs all through the U.S. economic system for many years, in well being care, analysis and growth, lecturers, banking, legislation, synthetic intelligence wizardry, startups and good, old style, get-stuff-built trades.
“There are some home challenges we face in Canada, which makes it a bit harder to be aggressive with different jurisdictions when it comes to attracting expertise, however it’s an excellent downside to have to have the ability to profit from someone else’s downside,” Mahmood Nanji, a coverage fellow on the Lawrence Nationwide Centre for Coverage and Administration at Ivey Enterprise Faculty, mentioned. “Proper now, in the USA, theirs is a self-inflicted downside.”
Article content material
However an enormous, unstated problem north of the border when it comes to exploiting the state of affairs to Canada’s profit, along with overcoming all of the bells and whistles that are likely to lure Canucks south within the first place, is that the easy info of an American life are nonetheless interesting to many.
He shoots, he scores
If a younger up-and-comer asks Toronto native John Hockin how he got here to be cofounder and chief funding officer at Sea Cliff Companions LP, a San Francisco-based public-equity fund, he tells them that working laborious, each out and in of the classroom, provides you choices.
“I all the time inform folks I went to Yale for the training, which I did as a result of I used to be an excellent scholar, however I actually went to Yale as a result of I desperately wished to play American school hockey; I used to be super-passionate for the sport,” he mentioned.
The previous Yale Bulldog goaltender doesn’t get between the pipes too usually as of late, however, not in contrast to most aged goalies, he has an knowledgeable opinion as to how the video games he watches on tv are performed and, regardless of having lived within the U.S. for a lot of his life, he nonetheless firmly identifies as Canadian.
I actually went to Yale as a result of I desperately wished to play American school hockey
John Hockin, Toronto native and San-Francisco-based businessman
His spouse can also be Canadian. They’ve a cottage in Canada and Hockin flies forwards and backwards between his desk in California and a dock by the lake.
Article content material
In San Francisco, he mentioned he doesn’t run throughout too many fire-breathing MAGA sorts, and there may be not a single individual in his skilled and private spheres who has not approached him to apologize for Trump’s discuss “in regards to the 51st state” and his commerce ways which have put the well being of the Canadian economic system in danger.
Hockin’s agency invests in American companies with market values of between US$1 billion and US$10 billion and works with these firms’ administration groups and boards. Previous to founding Sea Cliff Companions, he labored at Morgan Stanley and he was as soon as head of public investing at KKR & Co. Inc., a private-equity behemoth with an funding portfolio value greater than US$600 billion.
Article content material
Canadian expat John Hockin is co-founder and chief funding officer at Sea Cliff Companions LP, a San Francisco funding agency. He has spent the vast majority of his life within the U.S., however he nonetheless identifies as Canadian. Hockin, pictured right here, along with his Candian-born spouse, Lisa, at their summer time cottage north of Toronto. Photograph by Handout /Tom Hockin
At every cease alongside the best way, he has added American businesspeople and financiers to his skilled community, and regardless of his love for his native nation and plenty of friendships there, transferring again to Canada will not be a consideration.
“The U.S. is only a larger market,” he mentioned. “By way of entry to capital, measurement and breadth of the fairness markets, it’s a bigger market to put money into.”
That’s to not say Canada hasn’t been on his thoughts. His uncle, Tom Hockin, was a cupboard minister throughout the Brian Mulroney period. Publish-politics, he labored within the mutual fund business. His final cease earlier than driving off into the sundown was as Canada’s consultant to the Worldwide Financial Fund, a gig that coincided with the nice monetary disaster of 2008-09.
Article content material
The U.S. is only a larger market
John Hockin, Canadian-born and U.S.-based businessman on why he would not depart the U.S.
“I’ve all the time admired my uncle, and the one factor I’ve all the time thought of long run for myself as a result of I do have lots of relationships within the U.S. is how that may very well be useful from a Canadian perspective, and will I ever discover a position that helps Canada in relation to the U.S.,” he mentioned. “However I don’t know what that position is.”
The opposite factor is his perception within the inherent goodness of Individuals. Even with all of the “uncertainty” occurring at the moment, he mentioned Individuals “finally do the proper factor” in his expertise.
A referendum on whether or not Trump has been doing the proper issues will include the 2026 midterm Congressional elections, however till then, enterprise leaders are going to want to determine what to do and what to not do amid the uncertainty the president has created, all of the whereas understanding he’s all the time one tweet away from creating much more chaos.
Made in Canada
Brian Scudamore, who holds the considerably unusual distinction of being an American-born founding father of a Canadian success story, will not be one to panic it doesn’t matter what. The chief govt of O2E Manufacturers Inc., the Vancouver-based holding firm behind the 1-800-GOT-JUNK, WOW 1 Day Portray and Shack Shine franchises, has lived the American Dream, solely with a Canadian twist.
Article content material
His earliest, entrepreneur-stirring recollections have been seeded at his grandparents’ military surplus retailer in San Francisco. The place was piled excessive with foam mattresses, a wall of bomber jackets and an old style money register with large buttons, in addition to a helpful lesson Scudamore absorbed by watching his grandparents work the ground: it’s important to know easy methods to discuss to folks to get forward.
I can’t assist however determine with that American startup mentality of being gung-ho, however I’m nonetheless a Canadian
Brian Scudamore, founder, 1-800-GOT-JUNK
His mom finally married a Canadian physician and younger Brian moved to Vancouver, which is the place the middle-aged Scudamore nonetheless lives. In some unspecified time in the future in his early 20s, he formally grew to become a Canadian citizen, though he mentioned he felt Canadian lengthy earlier than he did the paperwork. It was round this time that he noticed a future profession path after recognizing a man at a McDonald’s drive-thru in a pickup truck full of junk.
“The American Dream was all the time in my mind as one thing that mattered to me, having been impressed by my grandparents in San Francisco,” he mentioned. “I can’t assist however determine with that American startup mentality of being gung-ho, being excessive vitality and believing that I can do something, having lived that dream of beginning my very own enterprise, however I’m nonetheless a Canadian.”
In Canada, he moved round as a child, and all the time being the brand new child at school meant making new buddies and never being shy. He additionally occurred to be the child who couldn’t sit nonetheless. Hustling was merely a part of his American-born, Canadian-raised DNA when he began his enterprise in a while.
Article content material
Article content material
Brian Scudamore, an American-born founding father of a Canadian success story, is the chief govt of O2E Manufacturers Inc., the Vancouver-based holding firm behind the 1-800-GOT-JUNK, WOW 1 Day Portray and Shack Shine franchises.He has lived the American Dream, solely with a Canadian twist. Photograph by Handout
However he understands that being a Canadian entrepreneur means you most likely have to develop past the border with the intention to maximize market scale. On the present depend, practically 90 per cent of O2E Model’s franchisees are within the U.S. To really make it large, he needed to make it in America.
Among the many unwritten guidelines of working along with his U.S. franchisees is to keep away from any point out of politics. At a time when individuals are anxious about paying their payments and recession fears are within the air, Scudamore’s recommendation to his homeowners is to deal with the issues they’ll management: get on the market, knock on some doorways, recruit good folks and don’t pull again on advertising and marketing as a result of folks will all the time have to do away with their junk even when the market retreats.
I might ask that one query, ‘How does this complete factor play out?’ And all people, the neatest folks I do know, all mentioned, ‘I don’t know’
Brian Scudamore, founder, 1-800-GOT-JUNK, on Trump’s presidency
On one late April morning in Vancouver, he had simply arrived residence from an annual gathering of CEOs on the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how the day prior to this, the place many of the attendees have been Individuals hailing from all corners of the economic system — well being care, actual property, expertise and extra.
Scudamore and the group went for a stroll via the campus and the close by streets. As each a talker and an excellent listener, he asks lots of questions, and what he wished to know was how his American buddies imagined issues taking part in out beneath Trump.
Article content material
“There was 100 per cent consensus — imagine it or not — on this one concept and it was, ‘I don’t know what’s going to occur,’” he mentioned. “I’m not making an attempt to be humorous or something, however I might ask that one query, ‘How does this complete factor play out?’ And all people, the neatest folks I do know, all mentioned, ‘I don’t know.’”
Trumping Trump
What is evident to Canadian immigration lawyer Benjamin Inexperienced, who focuses on workforce planning, worker transfers and navigating the U.S. and its labour market, is that Trump is protecting him busy.
His workplace has been getting calls from people with household connections to Canada who need to discover their choices. Then there are high-net-worth, non-Canadian households who, both within the current or in previous generations, have confronted persecution of their nation of origin and are gazing round an American panorama through which Trump is seeking to finish birthright citizenship. In consequence, they’re considering a transfer north won’t be such a nasty concept.
LGBTQ2S+ households are likewise experiencing unease, although the place Canada may actually rating large when it comes to bringing gifted people north is among the many techie and analysis crowd.
Younger geniuses, who as soon as got here from overseas to review at U.S. universities and are actually newly graduated and employed by an American firm, perceive the clock is winding down on their post-grad work allow and know they’re out when it reaches zero.
Article content material
In the USA, you run out of time
Benjamin Inexperienced, lawyer, on the issue with American post-grad work permits
“In the USA, you run out of time,” Inexperienced mentioned. “And that’s one place the place Canada already does a extremely good job, truly, of getting these gifted youngsters, who’ve gone to school in the USA and have labored for U.S.-based firms for a few years, to return right here.”
Nanji at Ivey factors to well being care as one space desperately in want of recruits. Canada is about 23,000 household physicians in need of having the ability to meet the nation’s wants, in response to a Well being Canada examine in 2025.
On the opposite facet of the border, American household medical doctors yearly earn about US$239,000 on common, which is about $330,000, or about $100,000 greater than the median wage of a normal practitioner right here, in response to Canadian authorities wage statistics.
Article content material
Mahmood Nanji, a coverage fellow on the Lawrence Nationwide Centre for Coverage and Administration at Ivey Enterprise Faculty, views the present local weather in Canada-U.S. relations as a golden alternative for Canada to repatriate gifted expats in addition to poach American prime performers from south of the border. Photograph by Handout /Ivery Faculty of Enterprise
In different phrases, leaving the U.S. means being prepared to take a hefty pay lower, however Nanji mentioned the federal government may create a program of incentives which may, for instance, pay for a physician’s relocation prices, assure them annual journeys again to the U.S. and even perhaps take a look at finessing tax insurance policies to mitigate the monetary blow.
Alternatives to poach American expertise and convey residence Canadian expats and all-stars from a variety of sectors don’t come up day by day — if ever — however Trump, along with his cuts to analysis funding and regressive social insurance policies, has emerged as a legit purpose to go away.
Article content material
“Canada must take a stab at this distinctive alternative, as a result of if we simply sit idle and do nothing, will probably be a possibility misplaced,” Nanji mentioned.
Again in New York, Billy Berg is aware of a factor or two about these gifted tech youngsters since his firm employs lots of them. The enterprise is already experiencing the impression of Trump’s methods, given its publicity to the tourism sector. People who find themselves nervous in regards to the economic system journey much less, and travelling to the U.S. is turning into more and more undesirable for Canadians, which hurts the underside line.
Canada must take a stab at this distinctive alternative, as a result of if we simply sit idle and do nothing, will probably be a possibility misplaced
Mahmood Nanji, a coverage fellow on the Lawrence Nationwide Centre for Coverage and Administration at Ivey Enterprise Faculty
If there’s a saving grace, he mentioned it’s that his firm doesn’t manufacture something, so it isn’t hostage to exterior provide chains, which might be a “whole nightmare.”
The enterprise is approaching US$1 billion in revenues and employs greater than 800 folks, a lot of whom are software program engineers from India. What occurs with these workers — and the place they determine to go subsequent — as soon as their work permits expire is already placing a pressure on his capacity to rent new folks.
“It’s not like these are cataclysmic impacts, however they’re already being felt and we’re most likely one of many luckier ones,” he mentioned.
Away from the workplace, Berg has discovered a number of issues about life with Trump again within the White Home, and that features understanding who to nix from the banquet visitor listing.
Article content material
“If anyone is pro-Trump in a social setting and also you combine in alcohol, it’ll get ugly rapidly, and it typically does,” he mentioned. “You both study that I’m not going to speak politics round that man as a result of I do know the place he stands, or else I don’t know the place he stands and so I have to be cautious.”
Berg’s youngest little one has one other yr left of highschool, so uprooting her now can be unthinkable. However as soon as she exits the nest, the “tether” will likely be gone, and the conversations along with his partner round the potential of leaving may tackle a extra pressing tone. What he does know for sure, he mentioned, is that he wouldn’t have been in a position to obtain all that he has with out New York.
He didn’t realize it on the time, however transferring to the town was his large break, and the vitality of the place that was evident to start with remains to be there, as are the skilled networks he has constructed and the friendships he has made.
Leaving that behind wouldn’t be simple, and neither would discovering a comparable, intellectually stimulating, good-paying senior govt echelon place in Canada, or anyplace else for that matter. However the truth that Berg is even enthusiastic about it represents a big shift in mindset.
“There’s a purpose I selected to remain and construct a life right here,” he mentioned. “However it’s humorous, although I’m a twin citizen now, I don’t really feel American.”
• E mail: joconnor@postmedia.com
Bookmark our web site and assist our journalism: Don’t miss the enterprise information you might want to know — add financialpost.com to your bookmarks and join our newsletters right here.
Article content material
Share this text in your social community
