As for the cost of going online...

Apparently consumers in Canada are less than eager to live in a world where the government doesn’t regulate prices on consumer services, at least when it comes time to foot the bill for internet usage.

That was the message the CRTC surely took from the recent backlash of opinion against their decision that would allow big internet providers that, by law, must lease bandwidth to smaller companies, to base their rates on usage. Doing so would likely cause huge spikes in cost for consumers who get their internet from small service providers, while at the same time drastically decreasing the amount they can download without incurring additional charges.

This decision spurred tens of thousands of Canadians (according the Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/932571--ottawa-to-reverse-crtc-decision-on-internet-billing) to sign petitions are write the government demanding that the CRTC decision be reversed.

Ottawa- probably shocked by response from a country that has become almost too disengaged to vote in significant numbers- promptly complied, coming out strongly against the decision and stating that they would overturn it if the CRTC didn’t do so themselves.

Apparently the key to motivating the Canadian public to actively engage with their government is threatening to send them a bigger bill each month.