Yup, It's that bad. T is spring I applied to and called at least a couple hundred places (not all of which were in Canada) without any luck. Eventually I found a dockhand position, through a friend, which was a foot in the door. From there I changed employers and havn't looked back. There are always jobs out there, just very hard to come by. As 5ly mentioned, every step of the way there are reasons why it won't work and countless people who remind you of it, but if you want it bad enough it will happen. It was also mentioned earlier, but a work permit will be key. It could be a long road, but its worth it!