have you ever spent the night in a hammock? I haven't and am pretty certain my back wouldnt like it, which would defeat the whole purpose of lighter weight and the money spent on a hammock trying it out?
tents--there are so many options out there, and so many prices. Its like everything in life, cost vs quality vs weight vs how much you want to spend vs how often you'll use it.....etc etc
places like Mountain Equipment Coop are a good place to at least familiarize yourself with quality tents-they dont sell inexpensive poorly made stuff---you'll at least see what you're up against. Roughly 300 cad + for a good one man tent at the very MINIMUM and then up.
sure, Canadian Tire will have cheap stuff, but they wont work well or last and they'll weigh a lot more
good luck doing researching
of course, remember that after a few nights camping and not using a motel, you will save easily half the cost of a good tent.
It depends on the hammock. I have a Warbonnet Blackbird, which has what they call a foot box. It is an extended area on the foot end, extending out to the side. It allows you to sleep sort of diagonally across the hammock and fairly flat. It is very comfortable for me, more so than my other, regular hammock. I definitely sleep better in the Blackbird hammock than in my tent, and I use both.