In the US, different cards have different perks - so the best-of-the-best spending gurus have between 2-4 cards in their wallets.
I don't know if this exists in Canada.
[My fave website for general penny-pinching, here in US, is www.clark.com, they go over this stuff often - and other general money things, like advising me that I should freeze my credit after the info-leak that I was unlucky to be a part of!]
Our family has:
*AmEx - which has 6% off at grocery stores, 3% off at gas stations. $95/annual fee, but we max out the grocery savings 6% x $6000/yr = $360... and that pays for the annual fee and still equates to about 4.4% net grocery discount.
*TargetRedCard - which is 5% off at Target. We buy a lot of groceries there too as well as general toiletries and kids clothes.
*USAA - 2.5% everywhere with $1000/direct deposit monthly to USAA account.
Summary is:
5% off whenever going to Target
4.4% off (effective) when getting groceries elsewhere
3% off gas
2.5% off everything else
IIRC, most credit cards take 2%-3% from the merchants who run their cards...
So offering the consumer 1% really isn't a big offering... in the grand scheme of the spending show.
One real cool trick is this: If you can get a really good "grocery" card, then you use that to buy "gift cards" at a grocery store that you KNOW you will spend (and not lose, or not spend all of... I hate gift cards...).
Like $100 at HomeDepot, well, if it is bought at grocery store at a 5% discount, then you really are only paying $95 for $100 of HomeDepot spending!