Seeing as there's only ~30 million of us, and fewer than that, pilots, we have a fairly small industry. If you were to take your training at, ProIFR, say, chances are, many operators might know John, and could call him up to ask what you were like, as a person, and potential employee. Not quite the same with some Oklahoma college that no-one has ever heard of...
Also, I suspect that qualified instrument-bashers/spark chasers are in fairly short supply here, so a company might be more than happy to have you aboard as an engineer, but things might get a little vague when you mention that you want to go flying instead...
Also, as always, off the beaten path is where you want to go when you are looking for work. There's lots of guys trying to get flying jobs in Toronto who don't want to move - move and things will progress faster..
Good Luck.