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I think the standard Canadian pronunciation is "aitch". BUT. People who live on the West Coast of Newfoundland (not to be confused with the Real West Coast = Vancouver) seem to move the initial 'h' around. This is for some reason associated in my mind with being French-Canadian. There are a lot of French communities in that part of the island. Let me give some examples:
I say "onion", they say "honion".
I say "aitch", they say "haitch".
I say "horrible", they say "orrible".
This next one is common for all Newfoundlanders: I have a friend named "Hugh" which they pronounce "you".
And so on. So what we need to know, at least for the Canadian trend, is whether or not belM says "aitch" or "haitch", "ockey" or "hockey", "onion" or "honion". And what she hears around her in Québec.
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Way back in the early 60's there was a wildly successful comedy program brought to Broadway from across the pond called Beyond the Fringe (still available, on CD). I think this was this show that included a(n?) hilarious take-off on the OT Jacob-and-Esau tale. An oft-repeated line went, as I recall, "My brother Esau is an hairy man." Distinctly hairy, not "airy. Big hoots from the audience.
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Definitely Haitch in English Québec. That is how we are taught to say in in grade school.
You are right about French pronunciation of English words though. For some reason Hs are added/pronounceed in front of vowel words like Honion and remove them in front of H words like ockey. I don't understand it one bit.
Haitch/aitch story.
A couple of years ago I was watching the U.S. national spelling bee (don’t y’all dare call me a geek) and the animator asked one little girl to spell aitch. “Aitch” she said with confusion. “Aitch” he said with authority.
“Um, can I get a definition please?” again with some confusion. I believe he said something like “aitch is the eight letter of the alphabet.” So, she, being from non-continental U.S. said “Haitch??” “aitch” he says. Poor thing got it wrong.
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Haitch/aitch story.
A couple of years ago I was watching the U.S. national spelling bee (don’t y’all dare call me a geek) and the animator asked one little girl to spell aitch. “Aitch” she said with confusion. “Aitch” he said with authority.
“Um, can I get a definition please?” again with some confusion. I believe he said something like “aitch is the eight letter of the alphabet.” So, she, being from non-continental U.S. said “Haitch??” “aitch” he says. Poor thing got it wrong.
That doesn't seem like it would be a legal word for a spelling bee. You can't definitively spell letters, they are what they are. That's like trying to spell "a". Is it ai, aye, ae, aeh?
About "a/an h-", In the three Jane Austen books that I just finished reading, I noticed that all words starting with "h" had the article "an", no matter how they were pronounced.
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You can't definitively spell letters
'course you can Jazzo ~ el, ee, tee... [notsmile]
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PUBLIC NOTICE: We have successfully raced to obtain the copyrights upon following terms: [notblush] [notcool] [notcrazy] [notfrown] [notlaugh] [notmad] [notshocked] [notsmile] [nottongue] [notwink] The same should hereinafter be refered to as [notblush]©, etc. Upon use of any such terms, royalties should be sent to us at the address which we will indicate upon inquiry. Thank you. Keiva Enterprises, Chicago suburbs, Illinois, USA-------- all copyrights 2002; are applicable to forms with or without brackets, braces, parenthesis and the like; and are world-wide copyrights specifically including (withou limitation) all parts of British Isles. 
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I say "onion", they say "honion". I say "aitch", they say "haitch". I say "horrible", they say "orrible".
Some of you may be familiar with a riddle. I was about to give a link, but since the links include the answer, I instead risk verticality to reprint it here for those who may not have seen it and wish to puzzle it out.
There is a poetic riposte, which I will post after giving puzzlers a chance to work on this enigma.
'Twas whispered in Heaven, 'twas muttered in Hell,
And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell;
On the confines of earth 'twas permitted to rest,
And in the depths of the ocean its presence confessed;
'Twill be found in the sphere when 'tis riven asunder,
Be seen in the lightning, and heard in the thunder;
'Twas allotted to man with his earliest breath,
Attends him at birth and awaits him at death,
Presides o'er his happiness, honor, and health,
Is the prop of his house, and the end of his wealth.
In the heaps of the miser 'tis hoarded with care,
But is sure to be lost in his prodigal heir.
It begins every hope, every wish it must bound,
With the husbandman toils, and with monarchs is crowned;
Without it the soldier and seaman may roam,
But woe to the wretch who expels it from home.
In the whispers of conscience its voice will be found,
Nor e'er in the whirlwind of passion be drowned;
'Twill soften the heart; but though deaf to the ear,
It will make him acutely and instantly hear.
But, in short, let it rest like a delicate flower;
Oh, breathe on it softly, it dies in an hour.
--Catherine Fanshawe
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>That doesn't seem like it would be a legal word for a spelling bee.
I know. But sometimes, while doing crosswords they will ask you to spell out a letter so I took it in stride. My hubby was flabbergasted. His argument, like yours is that the letter is spelled by the letter H=H B=B… And that it doesn’t make sense to use a whole pile of other letters to spell the letter you are spelling (wow, that is a mouthful).
The crowd all thought is was funny also.
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To me also, haitch is a common but ill-educated pronunciation, and really marks someone out. I'm not aware of it spreading recently; I can't say I've noticed more people saying it.
An Irish friend surprised me by telling me he'd explicitly been taught to say haitch in school.
The name appears to come from trying to say H in a language (late Latin then Old French) that no longer had an H sound: from ha to aha to ahha to akkha to akka, at which point it rhymed with vacca 'cow' and like it changed k to ch: French vache, which would be pronounced vaitch by now if we'd borrowed it into Middle English.
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