Obviously with Franco Nevada being a Canadian Foundational stock, that is personally my preference for someone wanting to hold exposure to gold. However, if you'd like to take on larger risks of owning an actual miner over a streamer like Franco Nevada, I do like Agnico Eagle. It is a former Bull List stock here that we removed after a runup in valuation. I'd consider it one of the blue-chip miners here in Canada that has operations in relatively stable jurisdictions, which is something that is pretty much mandatory for me if I'm looking to a producer.
You just have to understand the added volatility of a gold miner prior to buying one. Ultimately, no matter how good the company does operationally, miners tend to follow the trend of if gold is up, they go up. If gold goes down, they go down. Often more than the actual price movements in gold. For this exact reason a lot of investors go the streaming route via a Franco Nevada or Wheaton Precious Metals. They're generally less volatile and produce more consistent cash. They don't benefit as much in the large runups in gold but they also don't take as big of a hit in a falling price environment.
If it fits within your risk tolerance, Agnico would be what I view as the best in class producer in Canada.