Pretty interesting. Is there an equivalent to 500 or YC in Canada? What are the best tech cities in Canada? I know Vancouver and Quebec have universities with good CS programs, but that's about it.
School-wise, the best talent in the country tends to come from UToronto, Waterloo, UBC or McGill. That said, there are tons of great programs all across the country.
We have some accelerator-like programs and initiatives aimed at fostering an entrepreneurial spirit generally[1][2][3]. Nothing comparable to YC as far as guidance and connections go, though. But I don't think anything has been particularly successful.
[1] - http://www.extremestartups.com
[2] - http://www.thenext36.ca
Ottawa is the country's capital and some tech companies there are doing quite well (Shopify in particular).
As far as I am concern, Washington DC isnt the startup capital of the US, so why would Ottawa be? In my opinion government shouldn't be a driver of capital in startups, nor is it ... ?
Much of tech in Ottawa is mid- to large-size IT/gov't contracting and telecoms. As for smaller firms, not many are setting out to build the Next Big Turnkey Ruby App. But there are tons of companies aiming to fill niche enterprise/government needs, e.g. [1], [2], many many more.
Waterloo is also important, as that's where our "MIT" is, and Google etc have offices there.
All the easy money's in Calgary due to oil.
In Montreal: Founder Fuel http://founderfuel.com/en/