Local money-maker

I have made a couple local websites directed at services for a specific city, but I am about to make my first one in Canada.

For ranking purposes, will a dot c-o-m be more powerful than a dot c_a? Or vice versa?

For me its .com the best idea, local domains are good to , but its more expensive (in my country) and its hard and need time to get it...And its not batter then .com so use .com you know that Google like it