DieterHH: "And by the way - there are really and truly other cities in Canada besides Toronto and Vancouver where house pricing is rational."

The GTA+Hamilton and Lower Mainland+Victoria - where prices are widely acknowledged as out of control - comprise about 30% of the nation's population. This is not just "a tale of two cities" - nearly a third of the country is affected.

Further, this analysis (pdf file) indicates that Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, and Kelowna can all be classed as facing an affordability crisis: http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf. Comparisons of real estate prices to rents and incomes in this region would seem to support that.

Finally, just as many oil patch jobs only exist in the prairies and many fisheries jobs only exist near the coast, some jobs only exist in Canada's largest cities. When talented doctors, scientists, and engineers strike out in Toronto and Vancouver, many will be looking abroad for work, not to other parts of Canada. That's talent we need.