In Canada a minimum of 5% down payment is required to purchase a home. If you have less than 20% down you will need to have default insurance which is a premium added to your mortgage and paid off during the life of the mortgage.
Historically, variable rate mortgages out performed fixed rate mortgages because of their deep discounts. However, over the last few years fixed rate mortgages have been at record lows and variable mortgages are no longer discounted as much as they used to be.