The main gaming convention is Pandemomium, now in its 23rd year I think.
Pandemonium is a three to four day event held in Toronto. Traditionally, Pandemonium is held in January of each year, but as the Con has expended and been taken over by Realms Quest, the booking of a host hotel with enough rooms to host out of town guests is the main focus of the organizers; consequently the date remains in flux. Last year I believe it was in late February - a definite break from the January tradition of the previous 20 years.
Pandemonium offers a full slate of gaming con activities: dealer room, banquets, constume balls, D&D Open, RPGA events, LARP events, CCG and Mini duels and 24 hour gaming rooms and literally another few hundred events.
One of the highlights of Pandemonium, (admittedly less important in the post ebay days), is the auction. This is traditionally hosted by the "General Staff" (a group of gamers who were the original orgnizers of Pandemonium back in the early 80s) and runs from the mid afternoon on Saturday until around 9:00 pm or so in the evening.
It's one of those things you sit your butt down in the mid afternoon for to claim a prime chair early and you hang tight for the next 8 hours or so.
"Auction only" admission tickets to the Con have a long tradition at Pandemonium. Me and members of my own gaming circle typically attend for the dealer room and auction.
While the auction is not as large as that at Gencon's - it's on par in many respects in terms of the general assortment of items and rarity of the items typically sold. Best of all, the prices are *definitely* better at Pandemonium. Back in the mid-to-late 90s, (pre-ebay) we figured that it you showed up to Pandmonium's auction with $1500-$2,000 or so and just resolved to buy basically
everything that came up, you could box it all up and lug it to Gencon and resell in USD. Between lower prices at Panda and the exchange rate, you could basically double your money and pay for your Gencon trip.
Because of ebay, the auction is not what once was. Then again - neither is Gencon's.
I can say that as between the two (and I have been going to Pandemonium's auction for 20 years) as well as to Gencon's - Pandemonium's is still better. Some years have had only 400 items - others 800 or more. For a few years, the auction stretched across two days.
I'm hoping that a glut of 3.0 products will result in a veritible FLOOD of 3.0 stuff next auction.
Expect that Pandemonium 23 will be held sometime between January and March of 2006. At least - I assume it's still being held
Info on the hotel site and dates should be posted soon.
Their website is here:
http://www.realmsquest.org/pandemonium/
There is a con held in Hamilton as well as the Canadian National Expo which is slated for Labour Day weekend next year at the Metro Convention Centre. While the Sci-Fi/Anime/Comic fan element of the Canadian National Expo accounts for a very large number of attendees (37,000 last month) it's not really a gaming con so much as it is a "Geek" Con. If gaming focussed is your pursuit - Pandemonium is as large as it gets in Canada.
There are a number of other Star Trek, Sci-Fi, comic and anime conventions in Toronto - about 7 or 8 at last count. All feature gaming elements to them. But for pure "gaming first" - Pandemonium remains the belle of the ball.
Since you asked about Ottawa - the traditional Game Fest in Ottawa is during the Victora Day Weekend. It's called CanGames and it's been around since the 70s. For a while in its heyday (early to mid 80s) it was the largest gaming convention in Canada.
The link to their site is here:
http://www.cangames.ca/
