Back in the day I had similar problems, but I used a different Canadian ISP. The issue was their DNS: for some reason it did not resolve some valid domains.
Switching to Google's DNS might fix your problem. If it doesn't, it's probably Shaw's routes.
Nifty! I'm on Access (a small regional ISP in SK), but traceroute indicates that the packets are disappearing at a Shaw router in Calgary. Looks like Access gets its connection from Bigpipe (Shaw's bulk offering).
