The Canadian telcos, since there are only 3, are still gouging customers far more than the US. Long distance became effectively free years ago (for both markets) but the carriers rake you over teh coals for it. In the USA, almost all cellular plans cover the whole country, there is no long distance vs. local distinction. (In fact, almost all plans also have no roaming at least on that carrier's network.)

However, the main point about which is *better* is not about the particular price plans of each. The main thing that is better about the USA/Canada model is the way it drives competition. (That of course requires there be adequate competition, which there is not in Canada.)

In the European model, the person paying for the airtime (the caller) has no ability to negotiate the price or choose the carrier based on the price. As such there are very few pressures to drive down the price, or in fact do anything for the payer.

In the North American model, the person paying for the airtime (the phone owner) is the person who chooses the carrier. There is strong pressure to give the customer the best rates.

Now it's true that cell phone competition is far from ideal in most locations. It's highly regulated, and there may be no more than 2 to 4 competitors. So we don't get a truly optimal result. However, the more competition you have, the better the North American model will do. It is unquestionably superior from that standpoint.

What makes this particularly clear is that you can get "free incoming" from several companies here. And there would be nothing stopping cell companies from offering "900 number incoming" where the caller pays 25 cents/minute to call you -- but nobody offers it because very few people would want it. (Mostly people who want to actively discourage callers.)