I think raytoews doesn't mean to use the words "less restrictive" in the regulatory sense to describe the overall GA environment in Canada. We are subject to as many rules and regs as you are in the US.

I think what he means is that Transport Canada(TC) is a much more benign overseer of private GA and therefore far less intrusive than the FAA in the lives of it's pilots and aircraft owners. Unlike the FAA, TC does not seem to spend it's time dreaming up new roadblocks that undermine our freedom to fly. TC concentrates more on commercial than private aviation.