I think you know how they fit in. You just have to decide if you want to go down that road.

To acquire firearms you need to take a course and get a PAL. Not that hard. For handguns you need a restricted PAL which requires another course. Some places offer both courses plus exams (written and practical) all in one weekend. Not sure how it'll be in Calgary, but around TO these courses fill up really fast. Damn urbanites...

Once you've taken these courses all will be clear. They are not too onerous, and you'll probably especially enjoy the practical parts since it sounds like most of the different firearm actions may be new to you. I think you can find downloads of the various course manuals.

Contrary to what most Canadians think, it is quite legal to walk around inside your house wearing a cowboy hat and a pair of loaded six-shooters, if you want to. Yes, they changed the laws about cowboy hats! It's all about care and control, and a gun within your immediate arm's reach is considered under your control, so it *is* legal to have it loaded in your home. It's the using of it that causes the grief of course. The correct safe storage of guns and ammo when they're not in your care and control is a big course deal too.

If you want to know what I've heard urbanites around here buy for "home use": a shotgun, and/or a light/short semi-auto 9mm rifle for the "lady of the house" if she's smaller. This is not a good topic to discuss publicly in Canada...even more so around the area where I live.

Edit: you used to be able to search the gun registry by postal code (only first 3 letters) so could get an idea of what kind of firearms people in your area had legally acquired.