Interesting discussion. But one thing I'm confuzzed about -
You said
I just can't have a full time instructor job with two kids and all the driving around that this entails.
Won't it take a lot longer to drive from Toronto to the USA, link up with flight schools, link up with students etc, etc, than it would take to work locally?
I'm not so sure the comment about volunteering was correct. Just look at the number of international volunteers at Oshkosh each year as an example.