And the border for Canadians, even vaccinated, is not opening up to the US yet.Depends on what you consider "winter". Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, even Ottawa certainly don't 6 months of winter. Plus, I am sure most hockey players aren't too concerned about politics, otherwise there would have been an exodus from US teams up until last year.
Taxes maybe...... fishbowl atmosphere in a few of the markets (TOR/MTL) is probably big factor in the social media aspect. Social media makes wannabe heroes out of idiots. I bet local media is a big factor. Pandemic restrictions...... what can you do about that. Things are much better in Canada now, and restrictions are being scaled back, the border is even re-opening to vaccinated Americans.