if you already have close relations here in Canada and are going to settle close to them, they are the ones who can give you the best advices, I think.
If not and you are coming here without knowing a soul, I can think of a few general ones:
1. it will take more than a couple of months to really know a place eg. where to live, how to find job, how to find the best schools etc. So be prepared that any plans you make, and you should have some kind of idea how you are going to pass the first two months before landing here, will not be anything more than just temporary ones. As such, allow for maximum flexibility when you make plans in the beginning.
2. be prepared to talk to a lot of people on the streets, the locals, the immigrants, to get the maximum amount of information on anything and everything.
3. don't buy too many new things to bring over here! Once you settle here, you will probably find that you will need new things that suit the life style here, especially clothes. Tastes and fashions differ, the needs are different etc. etc. If you are coming to montreal eg, the local winter clothes are what will serve you, not anything you can buy elsewhere. Once you settle down, after a few months, you will probably know the place well enough to know where to buy things at a good price.
4. last but not least, you are entering into a completely new culture (yes, even if you are just driving up north across a bridge from Detroit). Be prepared to keep your eyes and your mind open to new ways of doing things, of new assumptions of how things get done. What is assumed to be the right thing in one culture can be judged very badly in another: eg from detroit to Quebec, stop threatening to sue for your 'rights' and graciously ask people to help solve this 'little' problem of yours that they had caused.
hope that helps.
