Tom Ford vs Creed

There is no such thing as the "best scent". Well, technically there might be one better crafted than the other, i.e. superior ingredients and so on, but what's your benefit from a fragrance that is superbly crafted and everyone loves it but you don't enjoy certain ingredients (do you want to wear it only to impress others or also for your own pleasure?)? My advice: get clear about what you like and what you don't like (to be honest, I'm currently at this step and only slowly progressing). Take a look at www.basenotes.com , browse the forums and database. Then sample, sample, sample until you find something you really like. One warning about Creed though: there is much hate out there because a few people consider the image Creed tries to represent (very old house etc.) to be a rip off. More importantly though is the fact that Creed has a very poor quality control in a couple lines - one batch might be very noticeably different than the other - still, they've got a couple nice scents.
The current releases in fragrances, are, as far as I know, very oudy. If you like this you might even enjoy pure oud oil - I can recommend www.agaraura.com . Actually you might even if you don't enjoy these fragrances as they mostly use synthetic oud, even the expensive ones. Oh, if you like western-Arabian scents I can recommend you Amouage.
But honestly, there are far better educated people here and at basenotes, so take a look in the "Scent/Fragrance of the Day thread"-thread here and at the basenotes.com forum to get a better idea.

Maybe if you ask nicely enough. However they most likely won't hand you out a sufficient number to really get a feeling for the house. There are a few online stores that sell decants, not sure whether one of them is in Canada. German-one that ships internationally, generous samples (you pay for ~2ml and receive 2,5-3ml plus a couple of free samples): www.essenza-nobile.de
Here's a large thread about sampling that might help you: http://www.basenotes.net/threads/216303-My-new-obsession-sample-purchasing?daysprune=365

What kinds of scents do you like best? Do you want something adventurous that will smell very different from mainstream stuff? Something classically masculine? Something sweet and foody? Or a fresh/clean scent?

Here are some very general recommendations: if you rule out the Tom Ford Private Blends, you don't have a lot of options for masculines. I think Tom Ford Extreme is quite good. Black Orchid and Violet Blonde are both very good, IMO, but I don't know if you'd feel comfortable wearing scents that lean a little to the feminine side. If you do want to consider Private Blends, I don't think you could go wrong with Tobacco Vanille or Noir de Noir. Moss Breches is excellent, though hard to find. I personally think Purple Patchouli is wonderful, but I also think that's a minority opinion. (Both Moss Breches and Purple Patchouli have been discontinued, but you can still find them.)

From Creed, the most popular are Green Irish Tweed, Bois du Portugal, Aventus, Virgin Island Water, and Millesime Imperiale. (I'm probably forgetting a couple.) GIT and BdP are classics. My personal favorites from the Creed line, other than a bunch of feminine roses that you probably don't want, are Baie de Genievre and Selection Verte. Acier Aluminum is pretty good too.

EDIT: The people at the Creed counter tend to be pretty good with samples IME.

creed for summer tom ford for winter?

A non-private blend Tom Ford that I like is Grey Vetiver, though I think Chanel's Sycomore is better if you're going for a vetiver scent.