I know it's tough, since there are barely enough spots to accomodate all of the Canadian students. Horror stories abound.

But if you're actually interested in primary care (even...GASP...Family Medicine), and would consider a school with a more rural/primary focus (e.g. Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Dalhousie, Memorial), is the playing field suddenly leveled? I know that many of these schools have quite a few spots left open after the first round match, and Irish grads (who are originally from Canada) would logically have a pretty decent chance of acceptance (in my mind at least).

Does anyone have any first or second hand experience with this?

This has been discussed a lot on the Europe/Irish forums. Of course it's one of "the" questions. Things are changing really fast and only improving. I personally know two Canadians who posted relatively easily into Canadian residencies (FM), one in the Maritimes and one in Manitoba. But even Ontario is apparently freeing up 200 more spots in the first round this year specifically for (pseudo) commonwealth grads (Ireland, UK, Oz). In family med or general practice, it really shouldn't be a problem if you do your homework and get decent Step1 scores etc.