Been there, done that. I put my RRSP into a RIFF and started withdrawing this January, in the year I turn 64. My minimum withdrawal is much lower than it would be if I started at 71. Right now my RRIF should make more money than I withdraw, but at some point the withdrawals will be more than the growth. This means that at 71 my income from the RIFF will be a lot less than if I had started it then, and I will not take a sudden tax hit. Also, at this point I am actually using the income (think lawyer's fees), but once my divorce (and financial affairs) are settled I should be able to dump in the maximum allowed into a TFSA, and use the RRIF income to contribute to it each year. That way as the RRIF shrinks, I will have assets accumulating in the TFSA for when I need them (i.e. when I move to assisted living, 20 years or so from now). I should add that my RRSP was never huge, because I had very little contribution room (main pension is from work).
My work pension is indexed so that when I hit 65 it goes down by the amount of CPP I will be eligible for. My financial adviser pointed out that at 65 I will be eligible for OAS, which means that I should start the CPP earlier, the drop in pension at 65 will be made up by the OAS. I am OK with this because CPP is better indexed than my pension is - it will not keep up with inflation, which is something I have to be careful about. Given my family history and present health, I should live well into my 90's.
My lifestyle is fairly frugal, my almost-ex was the spendy one. His retirement is going to be a shock for him. I am doing fine, my pleasures are pretty inexpensive, and I live in a mainly farming area where being fairly frugal is the norm. If only Hydro One would get its act together I would be living in luxury.
I read a lot of personal finance books - do not read American ones, their tax situation is so different. Read Canadian ones. And don't worry if the authors have different viewpoints - it is educational to see how different people think about Canadian retirement issues.