That's a pretty tall order to go from zero to Ironman in just over a year. However, training for and finishing an Ironman is always tough. Here are a few recommendations I would make.
1) Swimming is going to be very difficult for you if you have no background in swimming fitness. You have to either get some coaching, attend a workshop (such as Total Immersion) or at the very least buy a book and a dvd to show you proper technique.
2) Read up on IM training, theories, plans, etc. Two good books that I have are Bernhardt's TPfMSA and Joe Friel's "Going Long".
3) The 26-week Ironman plan in Bernhardt's book starts with a 1 hour run in the first week. You need to be at a place 26 weeks prior to your Ironman where you would consider a 1 hour run extremely easy. You should look at the first week of the plan and think, "That's quite easy. I probably won't even be sore from this workload." Now, in order to do that, you have to set up a training program to get you from where you are now to the starting point of that plan. Let's say that you have 28 weeks until your 26-week plan begins. I would plan for 20-24 weeks of periodized training, followed by 4-8 weeks of easy, low-heart-rate base training before starting the IM program. I just think that training hard for an entire year will leave your body exhausted and likely lead to overtraining. In the meantime, I would mix in a few short races and at least one Olympic and one Half-Ironman in your 20-24 weeks.
I think I will be ready for my Ironman, IMAZ on 9-Apr-05 (33 weeks+...), but I will have done 32 weeks of training this year, culminating with a Half-Ironman, followed by 4 weeks of down time for recovery/base trainining. I have been very dedicated to my training (just ask my wife). I started from a pretty good base of running - I did a one-hour run the day before I really started Triathlon training. I had no swimming ability then, just the history of growing up on a Lake water-skiing and such. So it can be done, but you must make a plan and stick to it above all else.
4) Finally, if you are deciced to do IM Canada, make sure that you are going to get into the race. IMNA races often sell out quickly, even within 48 hours (right, Max?). What I am saying is look into it to make sure that your friends standing in line will, in fact, be able to sign up someone other than themselves.
Finally, welcome to the nuthouse.