What is the reasoning behind overweighting canadian equities in the porfolios?
Canada makes up <5% of global markets so 25% is hugely overweight and canadian equities are pretty undiversified (commodities/banks).
Totally agreed.
@OP: Have you thought about VGRO or VBAL, depending on your fixed income needs? You can then literally just buy that one thing. They, unfortunately, have a hefty Canadian weighting, but hey.
Where is the money to be - TFSA, RRSP, unregistered? Are you bothered with tax efficiency inside your registered accounts? If so I'd avoid XAW there.
My 'if I started from scratch now' would be RRSP: 100% VTI, which is a US$ ETF (US index); TFSA: 100% ZEA (developed ex-North America); unreg: everything else to make my allocations work.