That being said a lot of tech folks in Toronto are leaving (or want to leave) because even though it's a growing and exciting space right now they still pay below market and that gets double worse by the exchange rate.
"anyone recommend companies and locations with a more optimistic/SF-ish culture"
I'm going to interpret this to mean you'd like to join a company where you can be more of a jack of all trades, take multiple hats, pick up stuff and learn on the fly. This is dead as far as I know. For tiny startups that are very very early you can fake it till you make it but beyond that you're gonna be expected to really know what you are doing. You still need to do all that stuff but you also need to be a pro in the primary domains of your role.