Vancouver guy here. I work for a media company as a part of a ~60 member software team. The fact is that probably less than ten people in the team are actually from Vancouver. Several of them are people who lived in the US on H1B visas that they couldn't get renewed. They come here "temporarily" but then like the lifestyle and stay.

I totally agree that the messed up US immigration system has benefited us here. I have experience with both immigration systems and the process in Canada was much easier than the US.