For free Canadian topographic maps for Garmin GPS units, check out
Ibycus Topo.
My understanding is that these are often better than the Garmin ones and they are based on the publiclly available Government data; effectively the same info you'd get from the government issue 1:50,000 topo maps.
I've loaded these on my eTrex 20 and they look great (I haven't seen the Garmin ones, so I can't personally compare the two).
If you want map data, but not for a GPS, I've found this is the best way to get the Canadian government topographical maps:
GeoGratis - Product Selection (other than buying the paper copies)
In the search box, type in the full map name (e.g., 082O05 not 82O5) and select the "CanMatrix - Print Ready - <map name>" link. On the next page at the bottom under "Resources" I've found the "Download file in PDF through HTTP" link works best. As a bonus, the newest version of Adobe Reader allows you to print the file across multiple pages without scaling it (under "Page Scaling" you choose "Tile all pages").
If you don't know what map you need, use
Toporama to browse and/or search for the location you want and zoom in to the 1:50,000 scale. Then in the legend click on the "1:50 000 Map Sheet Grid" option on. The caveat here is Toporama will display the map name without the leading zeroes (e.g., 82O5) so you need to add them if you are going to use the GeoGratis tool to search for the full map.
Finally, if you have an iPhone, you can download and view these maps using
Topographical Maps Canada by David Crawshay. There is also a nice app called
Kananaskis Trail Map by the same author which includes both the topography and trails for Kananaskis.