Thanks for the clarification David. I agree with what you say about a Canadian group. Having just one makes no sense because the country is so big and creating regional groups would most likely result in only having a handful of members in each on.
Personally, I like having one big group on NPN- aka everyone on NPN. 
Just a thought here. Since NPN is trying to increase membership by now having a free membership with very limited benefits, the real value of the site to me; the critiques, are not visible to the free members. If there is a way to do it, I would suggest making the critiques visible on the opening page, the most recent ones posted, be viewable by the free members. This way they can see the value of the site but in a very limited way. They would not be able to post. I realize the 30 day trial membership opens everything but this would be different. Once again, just a thought.