Canada is looking at 5 planes to replace the existing fleet: The F-35, the Super Hornet, Typhoon, Rafale, and Gripen.
The F-35 is hobbled because the way the project is structured LM can't put work share promises in writing to tier 3 development partners such as Canada, and counting on verbal "assurances" about contracts being handed out fairly is more than a bit naive given the current political climate in Washington.
Boeing are now in much official disfavour in Canada due to their attack on the Canadian aerospace industry. The Canadian government has been unequivocal about the issue, and unless Boeing reverses course they have ruled themselves out.
The Gripen NG is a nice plane, but the delivery date puts it a bit too far out for Canada's current plans and its smaller user base makes it a bigger risk from a commercial perspective.
That leaves both Typhoon and Rafale. The Typhoon is one of the world's top fighters, it has a proven muti-role capability with the current version (although air defence would be its primary role for Canada), and its ability to cruise at high speed for long distances with good fuel economy is a very attractive advantage from Canada's perspective (according to Canadian analysis purchase price of a fighter is only about 15% of the life time cost - fuel, maintenance, manpower, etc. are where the real costs exist).
All 5 planes have the ability to do everything that Canada wants, they're the short list after having excluded the other possibilities (e.g. modernised F-15). From a purely technical perspective given what Canada wants the planes for, the Typhoon is probably superior to any of the others. However, since they're all "good enough", the final decision will likely be made based on which company gives the best guarantees of offsetting military contracts to Canadian suppliers. The Typhoon reps have told Canada they can make a very attractive offer from that perspective. I imagine Dassault (Rafale) may be able to match that.
Canada ultimately wants a total of 88 planes (plus some sort of temporary interim solution to be delivered quickly until the permanent ones are delivered), which, should the Typhoon be selected, would make Canada the 4th largest operator of Typhoons after the UK, Germany, and Italy.