Thank you all so much for the advice. We are reconsidering December as we don't want to miss out on anything due to bad weather. We are still planning on 3 to 4 days in each place (have travelled like that before and wasn't an issue) so want to make the most of each place. I guess the next question is when would the best month be to travel around Canada. We are trying to avoid school holidays as the prices will be higher (another reason we are not going to go in December). We were thinking April. We all have warm clothing from recent trips to new Zealand so we figure the weather will be easier to travel in from April onwards. Next question is will there be any chance of skiing up in the mountains or will we just have to give up on the skiing idea?
May and June would be even nicer for the weather and the school holidays do not start until the end of June. September and October are also nice and schools restart in early September. There is limited skiing in the Rockies until mid-May but no idea how good it is.
December weather is usually not "bad" - it's just not a time of year that is good for "road" trips. Snowstorms are great for skiing, but not so when you are trying to get to and/or from somewhere. In the summer, 3-4 nights a location would be great, but traveling in Canada in the winter can be a lot more complicated.
April is not a great month for traveling in the Rockies.
The higher ski resorts (Lake Louise, Sunshine, Norquay) are open until mid May. April skiing can often be quite good, but no one can predict conditions this far in advance. However, unless it's an usually snowy/cold spring, most other winter activities are done for the season by late March or early April - i.e. skating, dog sledding, xc skiing, snowshoeing and ice climbing.
Also, because of the elevation, there is limited access and hiking in much of the Rockies until well into May and even June. The higher alpine lakes (Moraine Lake, Lake Louise, Maligne Lake) are frozen until late May, with seasonal roads (to Moraine Lake, Takkakaw Falls, Edith Cavell area) shut until late May to mid June. Usually there is some hiking in the lower elevations (town sites) by sometime in May, but the higher trails can be snowbound until as late as early July. For instance, the trails around Lake Louise generally are not hikeable until very late May or even early June. The popular hikes along the Icefields Parkway are usually not doable until mid to late June.
If you want to avoid the crowds, September is probably the best month for the Rockies and BC. Otherwise June, or late May if you can do BC or Ontario/Quebec first and then hit the Rockies.
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