Imho, .ca is not all it's cracked-up to be, and the domainer speculative bubble is alive and well with the .ca after-market. That is to say, I see alot of wishful thinking with .ca holders vs. actually sales. Check the .ca sales section here and some of the high prices people are asking vs. receiving any offers. Even then, look @ the low .ca prices and not many offers/sale being made there either.
Canadians web surfers are as habituated to .com as they are .ca, pride aside. Quebec seems to like .tv; PM Harper .me;
Now, while I do not disagree w/ buying .ca to protect your online presence, I agree it's because of a lack of business knowledge to such - that's why most of us domainers work from home, and not for companies (per se) - most companies don't have 'Domainer' positions in their business model. I still see businesses creating a name first and checking the web 2nd - so last millennium. Even alot of tech managers I work with dont know much about domains.
Then relative to a bag of chips - you tell a non-techie business person a generic can cost $XXXXs of $ - it nearly blows their minds. Domains and web presence is still largely an unknown area to some people. Even then, to explain the economies of scale savings to some business in making good $ off a solid web presence/web investment - some people don't even wanna hear about it.
Those who can break-thru and reach a knowledgeable end-user or pitch an open ear the value of domains - often make the higher end sales. (Please note, I am not one of them - I still hold my .ca and work on web development and my pitch.)
A company wanted to buy vmail.ca for $600 and when I explained it's worth more, despite being a tech company - they thought $600 was enough to buy a new computer - they didn't even put 2+2 together to see how a name such as vmail could make them alot of turn-key money as an easy to market brand for a growing tech-service such as vmail (voice/video/virtual mail). Anywho, I digress.
So, to your Question - do they care? Yes and no. Some companies don't know better, and ignorance is just ignorance. Those who know about domains are often the businesses whom do own the .ca - those who know about domains and then don't buy the .ca, I guess to some degree they don't care. Some days I wonder about many jobs in the world - and say to myself and others: Seems like businesses don't pay people enough to care most time.
Look @ how corporate greed @ the elitest level has left an injustice to society with millions of people being endlessly ripped-off - would you care so much about the company which did that too you? Worker/management relations are pretty low imo right now across the corporate world.
In the end: If the name is a TM, I'd say leave the .ca - if it's a decent generic, I say buy it and see what happens. It's yours to speculate over like we all do
Best of Luck & Success in All Your Endeavours!
