I chose Vancouver over moving back to the Valley. While I concede that it's no Silicon Valley, I enjoy my life outside of work so much more here than I did in Palo Alto. I'm also a Canadian citizen, so coming from Waterloo it was a lot easier to come to BC given no Visa and same banking system. It may have a rainy winter, but it's preferable to anyplace else in Canada, and the summers are to die for.
I think it's easy to convince people to move here, but the tech scene really isn't as developed as TO aside from the video game industry. Other local successes include Crystal Decisions (which was bought by business objects, and then SAP), Metrolyrics, and Plenty of Fish(take that one in what sense thou wilt).
