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Hi Kev, I'll give you my tuppeneth worth:

Toronto - don't miss Cabbagetown, a lovely district to wander around with historic Victorian houses and some great restaurants in the district. Also Allan Gardens conservatory. Trams are dead easy to use to get around, though we walked a lot! Get out to Beaches Park too for a boardwalk along the lakeside (take a tram along Queen Street E) and perhaps over to one of the islands. The Eaton Centre is good for shopping and I'm sure your mate will have loads more ideas about the city itself.

Whilst there head out to Niagara Falls by train, I can't remember the cost but it wasn't too much in 2005. We just went for the day and it was great, we got a bus from the station into the Falls and then just walked around.

Then it depends on how long you have and which direction you want to go in. We headed west on to Vancouver using the Canadian train and had bunks, but you can do it cheaper in seats. Go to the via rail site for loads of information on getting around Canada by train. We loved the journey, but it wasn't cheap even then. You can break the journey I think in Jasper to have a look around the Rockies or even swap onto a different train there. We just went to Vancouver for a few days on that trip as we then headed onto Vancouver Island where we had a hire car.

If you want any more info on the island let me know. I'm sure others will be a long to give you more info on other areas.

I.AM.VERY.JEALOUS. I just love Canada and Canadians :)

   Never been, but Jamie took the train from Toronto to Vancouver, via Jaspar, as BB mentions. He loved it. Everyone I've spoken to about Vancouver is wildly enthusiastic (but that's mainly the sailing fraternity, which is why it figures in our worldwide sailing plan). Canads are lovely people.
   I've been doing a lot of research into Newfoundland, which I believe is a pretty exciting place to visit if you're into nature... But if you get there before me I'll be very jealous ;-)

Just to start with, I'm Canadian and have lived in many different parts of Canada, but I find this to be a difficult question to answer, since you haven't indicated how much time you have, what your interests are, and what parts of the country you are intersted in visiting.

Don't forget that Canada is huge -- many tourists tend to underestimate how long it takes to get from one place to another. This will be made even worse if you are relying on public ground transportation. A rail ticket from Toronto to Vancouver (without breaking your journey) will take over three days and cost over $600 for the cheapest seat, double that if you want a berth. Conversely, flying from Toronto to Vancouver with an airline like Westjet will cost you less than $250 and get you there in 5 hours. I guess the question you need to answer is how much you want to see the flat Canadian prairies from a train window (unless you plan on spending some time there). Don't get me wrong though -- I'm not against train travel, or the Prairies (being I come from there!), but I think it's important to narrow down what you are interested in seeing, given whatever time and/or financial constraints you have. If you could provide more information about when you want to go, what regions of Canada you are interested in, and what time you have available, I think that would help in providing more useful information to you.

I know someone who took the train across Canada and said it was incredibly boring. I would suggest flying from Toronto to Calgary and using the time to explore the Rockies and the Pacific Northwest. I've not been to Toronto but I've spent some time in Ottowa, and althought Ottowa was lovely, I would recommend you try to get to Alberta and BC as the scenery is stunning.
We did some walking and canoeing in the Rockies (amazing) and drove over to the coast and took the car on the ferry along the Inside Passage to Vancouver Island. Tofino is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to - and yes, Vancouver is a gorgeous city.
I think you would need about 4 weeks to do all of that justice, though.
 Alternatively you could fly to Vancouver and stick to the Pacific Northwest.

Reading BB's comments on the train, I think the Prairie part of the journey was particularly boring. I'd imagine the trip through the Rockies to the coast would be amazing.

Our last trip to Canada was a few days stopover in Toronto en route to Calgary.  Definitely you have to see Niagara it is wonderful although totally over commercialised.  We did it in a day on a bus and actually did the helicopter trip over the falls which was spectacuar, pricy obviously, I think it was about £70 each.  We flew to Calgary and picked up a car which we feel is the best way to see the Rockies.  The train journey is probably spectacular but friends of ours got bored because they couldn't stop where they wanted to and spend the time they wanted to. 
Personally, having used both Calgary and Vancouver as the starting point to driving through the Rockies we far preferred the journey from Vancouver as you sort of build up to the spectacular mountains, each day getting more and more spectacular. 
Vancouver Island is beautiful whith some wonderful small towns along the Pacific coast and beautiful coastal scenery and, of course, Vancouver is the starting point for cruising up the Inside Passage which, I am led to believe is fabulous although we have not done that yet.

The Rockies are spectacular, but there's a lot more to Canada than Banff and Jasper!  And again, accessibility will be highly dependent on when you travel.  I was hoping to get off the beaten path in those areas in early October (a few years ago), and basically all the secondary sites outside of Banff and Lake Louise were closed due to snow or because it was "off" season.  And of course, if you don't have your own vehicle, you'll be more limited in what you can do.  That being said, Canadian cities like Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec have a lot to offer, as do the Maritime provinces (better with a car) and the North (ditto).  If you're into wine then the wine-growing regions of Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario and the Okanagan (Kelowna) in British Columbia are also worth a visit.

I think you'll get many different answers from many different people unless you are more specific.  Do you want to spend time in cities?  See wildlife?  Go whale watching?  Fishing?  See the salmon run in the fall? See the various landscapes that make up the Canadian countryside?  Go kayaking/canoeing on the many rivers and lakes that criss-cross the country? Culture?  Music?  Festivals?  Northern Lights?

Hi Ocelus,

I'm not sure how long you're travelling for but think you can basically go East or West. I was in Canada for about 6 weeks in 2008 and went from Vancouver Island through to Halifax stopping off in numerous places en route. Toronto, I didn't spend too long there but as BB and others have said, it's easy enough to get to Niagara Falls - much better from the Canadian side. Make sure you wander up stream a little from the Falls and see the dredger that cut loose from it's tug upstream and drifted very close to the Falls with two men on board. Only stopped when they opened the dredging doors underneath and then had to spend a night on board about 100m from the drop-off point. Probably not a relaxing night! Don't hold out much for the Canadian town by Niagara, it's tatty and very, very cheesey.

West
Easy enough to get the train from Toronto through to Quebec City and Montreal - can recommend both and public transport is very good. Then through to Halifax on the coast - very pleasant for a couple of days and then possibly hire a car to explore the coast and nova scotia a bit more as, certainly when I went, public transport was a bit patchier. Loved Montreal and Halifax and the coastline. Make sure you gen up on how to eat a lobster - there is a particular order the locals do it! And you don't want to do what I did and leave lobster juice up the wall of the restaurant!

East
Train through the Rockies from Toronto is spectacular and going through the Great Shield with it's lakes and dead flat scrapped limestone or granite (I'm not a geologist!). There were three classes on the trains, aircraft like chairs (for 4 days?! No thanks!), bunks or cabins. I went with bunks and it was absolutely fine. I think there were maybe a dozen of us in that part of the train (the people in the seats aren't allowed back so you basically have about a third of the train to yourself and your own sky-car). Vancouver for a couple of days - if you want some more ideas let me know). Then Vancouver Island and get the ferry up the Inside Passage.

Basically, I'd say Canada is easy to get around by public transport along the US border strip either East to West or vice versa - it's much harder if you want to go further north and options become more limited. The most expensive parts of my trip were the 4 day train trip from Vancouver to Toronto and the transport arrangements for a 4-day canoe trip.

Cheers
Simon

Contrary to other comments I actually enjoyed the train ride through the prairies - they may be boring to some, but I'd never been through there before and I got some good shots of grain elevators ;-) 

It was just something we wanted to do rather than fly, and I am very glad we did, though I'd probably not go there specifically (the Prairies that is), but we got to see changes of the landscape through the journey, from lakes and rivers, prairies, foothills of the Rockies, the Rockies (though in the direction east to west you unfortunately hit the Rockies during the night) and then coming into Vancouver through the flat green fields of the Fraser River. 

Moose is right though Kev, we need more info from you about what you want to get out of the trip and how long you have, otherwise you will get very confused!

Diolch all, sorry  I should have been more specific, seeing as how I have to work only get 4 weeks holidays a year, I thought two weeks would be the most I could take as I have other commitments for my holidays as well. I think that staying local so to speak would be best so Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec & Halifax fits the bill. I'll leave the West & Rockies for another time. As for things to see generally I prefer not to restrict myself but am happy to try most things, the whole point of visiting somewhere is to experience new things.

When exactly will you be travelling?  Of course, visiting Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec, and Halifax will easily take up those two weeks at any time of year, but if you were planning on going during the fall or winter there could be other options outside the cities as well that you might want to consider.

Thanks for all your help Moose, sorry for the delay been a bit busy watching the Olympics. I thought probably late spring to the fall, depending on how my mate is fixed. I think I'll have to do a bit more research before making any firm decisions.