Work as hard you want, but the sad reality is corporations are relocating to China where they can get away with paying slave wages. Having advanced degrees in engineering in 2011 gets you contract jobs, because it's cheaper for the company.
shareholder greed and CEO/board bonuses are the cause of most exported jobs. I know this from experience, having worked at 2 different companies that closed due to outsourcing. Neither was union.
OK. If any Chinese can do your job at 20% of the wage you demand, why do you expect corporations to hire you? That's not greed, what's being responsible to investors. Imagine you can either buy a washer for $200 from China, or exactly the same one for $1000 in Canada, will you be stupid enough to buy the latter?
Additionally, there are many jobs that is hard to be outsourced. China is a developing country. Its population is not as educated as Canada. Why not learn something that can't be outsourced? You really think anything engeering can be outsourced to China? China's nuclear stations, subway, high speed trains all use western technologies because they don't have their own. If you are really a good engineer, you can't be replaced by any random Chinese worker. China imports jobs as well, just the high end ones most average Joe is not qualifed for.
Stop feeling entitled to higher wages than any Chinese/indian just because you were lucky to born in Canada. The good thing about globalization is, your life quality is less depended on which country you were born in, but more and more about how competitive you are from a global perspective. Therefore, a hardworking Indian can make more money than a mediocre Canadian highschool dropout.
Let's face reality, the era where as long as you are born in Canada, you are guaranteed a good life without even having to work hard, is gone. We face more and more competition from outside the country. and if you are replaceable, you WILL be replaced and sink to the bottom.