The restrictions are anything but "stupid". They give the namespace a sense of identity and proof of ownership. When I as a Canadian shop on the net I am far more likely to spend my money on a .ca website than most others because I know that I most likely dealing with a Canadian. This gives me much more legal recourse and peace of mind. Canadians are huge online shoppers - to do away with the restrictions would completely dilute the trust Canadians have in dot ca.

I would never in a million years want the namespace opened up. It would only benefit domain name resellers and nobody else. It would harm all those doing business on a .ca and that monetary value dwarfs the reseller market by a very large margin. In 2005 Canadians spent nearly $8 billion online - that number is growing by 30%+ every year.