Having used gas, charcoal and a home built open log BBQ, it is gas everytime. Hook it up to the main line, no need for propane. Used to be an avid charcoal griller until started using gas. Get a smoker and put some hickory in it and you would not tell the difference between the two flavour wise. None of this waiting for an hour to get up to temperature.

We do our thanksgiving and Christmas turkey and roasties on the BBQ every year (none of this rotisserie stuff), crisp golden brown skin and tender juicy meat with a mild smoked flavour.

Walmart sell loads of charcoal BBQ's and Canadian Tire sell proper charcoal - as well as the briquette sort

Smoking and barbecuing are different things. Our smokers are charcoal based but I can see that it would be possible to produce smoked meat with a gas smoker so long as you kept wood on top of the gas flame. This would especially be the case for ribs if you're using the 3 hours open, three hours wrapped, two hours open, method as, during the wrapped period they're not exposed to smoke anyway. However, as long as you're going to tend to the machine all day you may as well use charcoal as gas.

In grilling on a barbecue the flavour comes from the meat juices and marinade dripping on to the charcoal and burning there, the same flavour cannot be achieved with gas and synthetic coals (nor with those briquette things). It's only true that one cannot tell the difference between a proper barbecue and a gas grill if the food is weiners.

I think Canadians enjoy gas barbecues as they often have electric cookers in their kitchens, any gas stove indoors or out seems a big step up from that.

Most hardware stores also have charcoal.

A BBQ smoker is a small cast iron box you put wood chips in beside heat source, the smoldering wood gives a smoky flavour to the food as would burning charcoal (which is wood). Nothing like a smoker for preserving. We manage quite successfully to get an equally good result from the gas BBQ as we got from charcoal, grilling, roasting, meat, fish and vegetables. It is quite achievable to get the same if not a better result from a gas BBQ.

I would't put your weiner on it though!

The first picture is of a smoker, an indirect heat appliance used for making ribs, legs of lamb, chickens and so on. The firebox contains charcoal and often wood chips, the smoke flows past the meat and out of the chimney. This is the form of cooking I think you can probably emulate reasonably well with your outdoor stove.

The second picture is of a barbecue, a direct heat appliance which requires that the meat be directly over the heat source, charcoal, in order that the meat juices can drip on to the charcoal. It's used for steaks, kebabs chops and the like. This you can't do without charcoal.

I have to say it's surreal, two people from the land of stewed veg arguing over cooking.

You can, both gas and charcoal can be used indirect or direct. Charcoal indirect uses a water tray underneath the food, especially for roasting, gas, you have one burner on high and the other on low, with the food over the low burner. A charcoal kettle BBQ is an oven in a sense as is a gas BBQ. Juices can drip onto ceramic bricks or charcoal and the heat sends the smoke back into the BBQ, each type can catch fire from meat juices just as easily! To get the wood smoke flavour as charcoal would give you put a smoker box inside the gas BBQ beside the coals with wood chips in it. Works just great for us. Never needed a BBQ smoker as we can get the same flavour out of our BBQ.

A large turkey roasted on a BBQ takes less than half the time of a household oven and tastes way better and is very juicy and tender when done right.

Smoking in the traditional sense is used to preserve food. Food smokers now are often electric as well as wood burning.

Ye Gods. Do you hold nothing sacred?