I think that the Garmin 76CSX is tops. A compass sensor, expandable memory, large colour screen, submersible, floats.
Put a 1 GB micro sd card, and you can hold the topo map of Canada at 1:50,000. You still need to buy (or borrow) the map, but the map is incredible. You can try out the map at http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/topoCanada.jsp. There is a link in the upper right part of the page that loads an applet that lets you pan and zoom all over the place. Compare it to Google Maps, and it's bang on, but with elevation data added, and much higher resolution in remote places. I like the idea of a road map of Canada, everything, on this little handheld gizmo.
I'm sure you'd be happy with either the Lowrance or the Garmin, but I bought the Garmin. GPSCity out of Calgary has the best prices, no PST. Check them out for either receiver.