Actually, buying country specific domain names with alternative TLD extensions is a good business practise IF potential traffic levels warrant such purchases.

For example a year or two ago we purchased adultwebmasters.ca on a whim just for shits and giggles, we pointed the domain to an ip on our server and in 2 years we amassed a total of 2000 hits to it LOL

That being said, if you own shoes.com, it would definately be a prudent move to grab as many other shoes.tld domains that you could find

Also, if you are planning on branding a domain, either now or, in the future, by snagging the more popular extensions of that domain you are guaranteed that traffic you work for, you get to keep.

The problem arises however, specifically with .ca domains [unless this has changed in the last 2 years] that you nee to have a place of residence or business in the Canada. The same i also true for a variety of other countries around the world.

I beleive there are a couple of articles on this topic in the Tutorials + Articles forum of GWW as well as in the GWW Directory

Regards,

Lee