Campaigners against high taxes use the problem of brain drain as the perfect scapegoat to portray themselves as defenders of national interest. Brain drain is a pejorative description of the tendency for skilled workers to seek employment away from their own country. Canada can relate to the brain drain problem and its worst enemy is the United States. The drain of knowledge started off as only a little trickle. But it became an issue of interest by the early 1990's, as there was evidence of Canada becoming a net loser of skilled workers to the United States, even though Canada was also a recipient of skilled workers on a worldwide basis. "Taxation is testing the allegiance of some of Canada's best and brightest", claims John Roth who is the vice-chairman and chief executive officer of Nortel Networks (Canada Newswire, 1999, page1). A network design and engineering company like Nortel Networks has to deal with a shortage of skilled high-tech workers in Canada and thus blindly point the finger at high taxes to be the cause of this problem. Hence, clearly high-taxes have become a perfect excuse for those who are trying to avoid dealing with the real reasons behind the brain drain problem.
             Referring to the statement made by the Canadian Alliance Leader, Stockwell Day that, "High taxes are pushing some skilled workers to the U.S" (Canada NewsWire, 2000, Page1). It clearly shows that, the above individuals have not taken into mind the correlation between the brain drain and other factors, such as Canadian public sector cutbacks, the lack of professional and skilled occupations available with higher salaries, and the insufficient amount of investment put into research development, which also have a major role to play. Realistically, the tax differential is not a major issue for Canadians who have moved or who are planning to move to the United States. And despite all the myths and research that claim high-taxes to be the primary cause f...