There are 13 very good universities in Canada, known as G13. They are the ones making the research in Canada and competing with big US and European and Asian universities in research and teaching. These are (in alphabetic order),
Dalhousie University
Laval University
McGill University
McMaster University
Queen's University
University of Alberta
University of British Columbia
University of Calgary
University of Montreal
University of Ottawa
University of Toronto
University of Waterloo
University of Western Ontario
I would compare them with Britain's top 13 universities,
Oxford
Cambridge
LSE
UCL
St Andrews
King's College
U of Sussex
U of Bristol
U of Edinburgh
U of Leicester
U of Nottingham
U of Exeter
U of Warwick
Interesting enough, 70 percent of G13 are based at Ontario, Canada's most urbanized province due to its geographical closeness to Michigan. Universities in Ontario are good but the province itself is very expensive to live. I know from my own experience that Toronto is actually more expensive than London. I had visited my friends two summers ago, and I was shocked by the prices of accomodation, utility bills, food, beverage, and clothing. London in my eyes had looked like Leicester (one of the cheapes places in the UK). Not exactly student friendly. In order to study in Quebec, one needs to have a proficiency in French too, because people mostly speak French there. On the other side, Universities at Alberta and Calgary are very good places to do study anything. Alberta and Calgary both are huge schools with top-researching academics, and their qualities are as good as Toronto and McGill. They are multidisciplinary and offer generous funding. Cities of Edmonton and Calgary are both beautiful and vibrant, very student-oriented with lots of sports and arts activities, although less multicultural than Toronto or Ottawa. As a person who lived in Scotland, I don't think the weather there is as cold as the weather in Aberdeen or St. Andrews. Additionally, there is British Columbia, where there are three good universities, as University of British Columbia, University of Victoria, and Simon Fraser University.
I think all universities in Canada are great regardless of G13. For sure, they are better than most British universities in terms of endorsing students in many respects, chiefly, in funding. Yet since their quality is high, they are likely to admit high quality students who have distinguished or original interests. Canadian unis are often very multidisciplinary and their encouragement for critical and original thinking is way better than British universities.
So choosing a university in Canada ain't that tough at all. They all are good and even better than most uni's around the world. In my experience, in the UK, the choice of university has become much more difficult with David Cameron's recent budget cuts.