Ummm...better brush up on your geography a little. I know Oz has super-expensive real estate right now, but just because you found some random listing online for a theoretically cheap home, doesn't mean that's representative of Canada!!
Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria are almost as expensive as San Francisco or NYC...and Sydney. My mother has her modest 2 br condo in a nice location in Vancouver up for sale at the moment for $850K. Victoria has a rental apartment vacancy rate of about .5%; it's hard to get a nice 1 br anywhere in the central city for less than $1000/mo, although it's possible if you're willing to live in something less nice or in a slightly dodgier neighbourhood. My sister just moved out of an OLD, dirty 1 br place in a great area in Vancouver, where they had been grandfathered a little in the rent. When they moved out, the landlords raised their previously $950/mo rent to $1750.
Little experience with Toronto; it's a bigger city, so there may be a few neighborhood gems that aren't quite as high...but that's not the reputation.
And remember that, unlike Oz, in Canada, people pay for climate and services. Those 50-60K homes? Are they in rural Saskatchewan? If so, get ready for -30C winters...with all the home maintenance that requires... Other cheap real estate areas, like New Brunswick or PEI, often come with very high home heating costs, property taxes, lower wages, and other expenses that balance out some of that initial affordability.
The problem here is that, much like Australia, we have a small population clustered in desirable areas, which raises prices. To get cheap real estate, you have to go really rural and small...which can be a very different lifestyle.
