Interesting comments about the R22/R44. I learnt to fly in the R22 and found it quite easy to fly, a few little niggles but nothing serious, I did a TR on a 300C and that was good to fly, nice and responsive.
Actually had my first flight in a R44 a couple of weeks ago, I thought it handled pretty well for a piston engined 4 seater, was very smooth in autorotation and having hydraulic controls made it very easy to get to grips with.
How much does the Canadian route cost for a PPL? There are schools in the UK that can do a PPL for less than 18k which includes all the groundwork and if you choose the right school a cross channel flight.