I had my first flight on West Jet today, from Calgary to Vancouver and it reminded me of Southwest Airlines. The flight attendants were younger, up beat and friendly, and the seating was semi cattle car. When you make your reservation on West Jet you can pay a little extra for an assigned seat or you can just try for the general boarding and hope the plane is not too full. This evenings flight was only about 3/4 full so the seat selection was pretty good for those who wanted to wing it (no pun intended). I choose to get an assigned seat as I am not the best flier and I always try, very hard, to get a window seat if I can. It is not a fear thing but a motion thing and being able to see the ground as a reference point helps me keep the motion sickness in check. Even if we are in clouds I can still see the engine or wing out the window and that helps. 
West Jet has an in-flight magazine called UP (like my favorite Disney Pixar movie) and this months issue had a very complimentary article about visiting Cuba, something we would never get to see in the US with our policies on travel there. I always like to read local periodicals to get a different countries view of the US or read about things that we don’t always have access to in our country.
On one of my trips to Calgary last year, the in room Travel magazine in my hotel had an interesting article on buying up cheap property in the US, specifically Arizona, as a second home/rental property. At the time we were being told in the states that things were turning around, the Canadians were bring told that things would be getting worse and they should pounce on our distressed property.
Looking forward to spending a few day in Vancouver with some new clients.