RE: CUU and TFSAs
Not sure if those loop holes in the TFSA are closed, but to my knowledge the gov was looking into closing those loop holes air-tight.
TFSA vs Self directed RRSP.
The TFSA wins hands down if you make big gains. As well if you have a decent pension awaiting your retirement, no tax will ever be paid on withdrawls from your TFSA. Downside is that you only to date have 15k room to invest to grow.
The self directed RRSP wins in the long run if you recontrubiute the tax return every year, most people spend the tax return. As well if you have no pension awaiting retirement, the RRSP is the way to go.
Bottom line, to me, i try to make big cash in the TFSA, to transfer to the self directed RRSP. Two advantages here, you keep TFSA contrubution room high for further years. Second, you gain tax breaks in the RRSP at a higher income rate that you have today vice the lower income rate when you retire.