did they do away with first class shipping to canada all the web site shows is priority

It's pretty much exactly what it was before, just more expensive.

Originally Air Letter Post was available up to 4 lbs, then you had to ship Air Parcel Post or Worldwide Express.

Now, it's First Class International up to 4 lbs, and Priority International or Express International for anything heavier.

Same service, just homogenized names and more expensive to pay for the reprinting of all their packaging materials and signs

Not exactly. They done away with surface mail (4-6 weeks) pretty much all together. Not just to Canada, but all around the world. USPS said that more people would ship surface to save money that they were actually losing money by having the service. So the First Class International is pretty much the cheapest method, equivalent to Parcel Posts in the states. The new system is actually cheaper for us when shipping to certain Euro countries, but more expensive to Canada and Mexico.
~~NGD