On the part of the question that I perhaps would answer, I would say one would have to look in a very nuanced fashion at what's moving in university rankings and do pretty in-depth analysis to figure out what it means.
I feel quite confident to say that the reputation of Canada's research universities is outstanding. The country has now, to its credit, multiple international awards and significant recognition in areas that are well known. I would leave how the rankings are composed or what they mean to experts in direct academic research.