As a Canadian who lives in SF, your bullet points really need qualifiers. In general I find that Canadians over estimate the danger of living in the US.

As for that other stuff, it really depends on where in Canada. Don't tell me that the public transit is great everywhere, because it isn't. Canada was built on cars. Some cities, like exactly only Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal have good public transit. Many do not.

BTW the amount of homeless people sleeping on the streets in Toronto was a little surprising to me.

Vancouver has the same real estate market as SF. Good luck buying a $1.1m on a $105k senior Dev salary.

As for health insurance, the system works if you have a good job with good benefits.