Is Ottawa still Silicon Valley North?

cbc.ca

2 points·awk··5 comments

I think calling anywhere 'Silicon Valley North' is more an attempt at marketing the location to businesses, rather than actually reflecting a 'Silicon Valley' like area where investment, technology, risk taking and knowledge or access to knowledge intersect.

I've heard Vancouver referred to as Hollywood North, but a significant portion of Film/TV production actually happens in Vancouver.

How many start-up successes have you heard of from Ottawa?

The only one I can actually think of is QnX, all the rest of the successful Canadia IT companies that I know of are elsewhere, but then again of course I don't know even a small percentage of the Canadian IT business, in spite of having lived there for 5 years.

There's an OS that missed it's chance to displace windows by the way, lightyears ahead of the competition (still is in many ways).

They're huge in embedded systems.

I don't think it ever really was. Seattle, Toronto, Montreal maybe. But Ottawa ?

There are three areas in Canada that I'd call tech centers. I've heard all three of them referred to as 'Silicon Valley North': Southern Ontario (Waterloo, Toronto), Montreal, and Southern BC (Vancouver, Victoria).

Disclaimer: I'm a proud Canadian, but also a realist.

I study in Waterloo, ON and have often heard it being called Silicon Valley of the north. I had the pleasure to spend this summer working in California, in the heart of the true Valley. If people really think Canada has anything remotely similar to the scale of this, they are delusional. The only real Valley-sized company Waterloo has is RIM.

I really look forward to that changing over the next few decades, but we're not there yet.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com