I would stay away from the ETFs; its good to have "real money" that is out of the financial markets... Basically you want to hold some physical bullion; I personally hold around 12% of my networth in Bullion; thats something to consider for your personal needs. Remember certificates are also no good; if you buy you should buy the phyical bullion...

Anyways; is gold over priced right now ?? I would suggest doing research comparing gold and other financial instruments...

For Example how many units of the Dow can be bought with the current price of gold etc... I think its around 9 Ounces of gold... It used to cost 45 ounces of gold to buy a unit of the Dow years back prior to the nasdaq bubble I believe.. Just something to look into...

As a Canadian myself; I am not sure if gold is the place to be getting into now.. I bought some years back and have no plans on purchasing at these prices. I am not an expert though... I do have to holdings in physical silver bullion though... What I like about silver is that its real money and if there is ever a major currency crises; then I will have a portion of my wealth in something other than paper... Withregards to silver; since its a dual precious metal/ industrial metal it might be benefical to look at the future economic growth of both china and india.... My also dont look at my silver holding on a day to day and see am I up am I down; its more of an insurance policy type deal and its working well that way.... Dont forget to try to buy when the Canadian dollar is up as much as possible...

cheers

Another website for silver bullion purchase:
www.firstmajestic.com