You can't just say "in Canada", you might as well say "in real estate"... unless you mean in real estate (globally) as a Canadian?
Because - Toronto vs Ottawa vs Windsor vs Kingston - light years apart.
It also depends on your tolerance. Even with property managers, I hate the sinking feeling when "tenant's done x". So, for me, I've decided it's not really worth it, and I'm in the process of selling my rentals. We'll see how that goes, one I think is pretty much good to go, the other I haven't heard anything at all on so I might end up keeping it - funnily it's the one that's been least hassle. But that could change, of course.
Rentals have some pros - you can manage your income with depreciation. There's less of a tax bill if you die unexpectedly, though of course if you've owned for a number of years there may well be significant capital gains (and, if you've depreciated, clawback to your original purchase price at full rates), vs full tax on RRSPs. But that's just an argument - for most people - to withdraw from the RRSP in early retirement - it's planning, not a problem.
The big pro for real estate is you can leverage, and you can buy as much as you want.
Also, remember real estate is a class of investment, RRSPs are a vehicle for investment. The real question, I think, is *stocks* or real estate. And to that, my answer would be - it'll be less risky getting a couple of hundred thousand invested in the stock market first, then moving on to leveraged real estate.
Of course, I did the opposite - bought a house, lived in it, moved out, rented it out. Housing market did ok. Hence, I did ok. But I was contributing to my (UK, sort've like RRSP) pension as well. Then in 2010-ish I started throwing all my spare cash into the outstanding mortgage - when I should've been throwing it into the stock market (well, I did a bit of both, but mostly the house).
Houses are hassle. Much more risk. Much more reward IF you leverage and don't get crappy tenants. Def. easier/more stable if you have a number of properties, ideally in different cities - diversification is a good thing. I mean, imagine you were a property investor in Detroit 20 years ago...