I've been doing a lot of research on the subject lately for a work project and I agree that webhostingtalk.com is probably one of the best resources out there. To me, it sounds like you might want to start with a virtual dedicated and then move up to a real dedicated when you get the traffic. A lot of times people think they need more traffic than they do at the start and you don't want to pay for bandwidth you aren't using.

Canaca kind of bothered me with that clause about the 10% and the fact that they will not refund your money if they decide you are in violation of it would make it kinda hard to prepay. They also have an unfavorable rating with the better business bureau in Canada.

As for a webhost, I'm not totally sure myself. I have gotten major headaches trying to weed through the rhetoric in trying to find one. To the point, where I wonder how anyone gets hosting anymore. Talk about a confusopoly. But the best advice is to make sure whatever web host you go with that you are clear on the policies before you sign. Find out what their uptime policy is, their Acceptable Use Policy, their bandwidth limits (including their server load limits) and how much extra bandwidth is, their reputation, how long they've been in business, and what is included (managed, not managed (which is cheaper), any PHP/MySQL/C++ compatibility you might need for whatever apps will run on the site).