Well this has been quite a week for Canadians. First, Thomas Friedman calls for H1-B holders to have access to green cards (granted he didn’t mention Canadian workers but it would apply to us!) And earlier this week, Fareed Zakaria praised your northern neighbors in Newsweek. Some of Zakaria’s findings:

1) In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada’s banking system the healthiest in the world.

2) Canada has done more than survive this financial crisis. The country is positively thriving in it.

3) So what accounts for the genius of the Canadians? Common sense.

4)  Life expectancy in Canada is 81 years, versus 78 in the United States; “healthy life expectancy” is 72 years, versus 69. American car companies have moved so many jobs to Canada to take advantage of lower health-care costs that since 2004, Ontario and not Michigan has been North America’s largest car-producing region.

5) Canada, by contrast, has no limit on the number of skilled migrants who can move to the country. They can apply on their own for a Canadian Skilled Worker Visa, which allows them to become perfectly legal “permanent residents” in Canada—no need for a sponsoring employer, or even a job. Visas are awarded based on education level, work experience, age and language abilities.

If the US doesn’t fix its “brain-dead immigration system” I may be heading north next year - and maybe that ain’t so bad.

takepart by reading all about Canada’s awesomeness in Zakaria’s article.

(Photo: Robbie’s Photo Art Flickr photostream. Creative Commons)