As for security, I flew through Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal and Vancouver over the past 3 months and honestly, I was pleasantly impressed with the way airport security is being handled. It appears they've put extra people in the screening areas and supervision is much better than it was pre-9/11. I didn't take any longer to go through security than before but the checks were much more intense. All carry on baggage was opened, and I mean everyone's. All electronic gear had to be turned on, not just inspected. Generally very courteous screeners, too. What I didn't see any evidence of was some of the wierdness many folks here have described happening in some U.S. airports...confiscating toys, being really anal with elderly people who are about as far from the profile of a terrorist you could imagine, humiliating passengers, that sort of thing. Just very thorough and generally polite inspections with extra room to turn on laptops, check bags etc.
I was expecting much worse, and as I hadn't flown since 9/11 I was relying on horror stories as perception. Frankly, I've never felt more confident than I did with the inspection routines I saw, and it was consistant at all the 4 airports.
If there was any idiotic behavior going on I didn't see it.
Me, a 20 something white guy had my shoes taken off and inspected, yet not any electronic devices. The two middle-eastern guys didn't have anything inspected, period.
Leaving Toronto, every single passenger was checked, regardless of race/age. Every single electronic device turned on.