I fly quite a bit, and there are airports that I love, and those that I loathe. In general, I find airports in Asia are much nicer to travel through. Airports in Canada are better than those in the US.
One thing that I really like about airports in Asia is the free Wi-Fi. While there is Wi-Fi in LAX, it's just useless as you have to be in a specific lounge and get a login or use the tmobile Wi-Fi, which requires a login, if you can get one. It's just too complicated to bother with. When you've just spent 14 hours on a plane, you're tired, cranky, and stuck sitting in those horribly uncomfortable airport chairs... running around to figure out how to login is just a bit too much to ask. The airports in Asia have it right -- just let people login and use it. No hassles.
More and more, I see why Incheon International Airport has won so many awards. It really is a fantastic airport. The Hong Kong airport is also excellent. Kuala Lumpur is also very nice. Their LCCT is coming along, and while it's not quite there, it's still much better than most airports in North America. There are plenty of shops both before and after security. For a low cost terminal, it really puts some major airports to shame. The LCCT is nowhere near as nice as the Kuala Lumpur International airport, so you can imagine what that's like. I suppose my only gripe about the LCCT is that their Wi-Fi is really unreliable. Easier than LAX, but unreliable.
Arriving in Vancouver, well, need I say more. The airport there is quite nice. Getting through immigration and customs was a breeze. Fast and easy. Much better than in Melbourne for sure! 
The Melbourne airport is probably one of the worst. Behind security there really isn't anything besides a few duty free shops. If you're hungry, you'll starve. If you're flying Quantas, you'll starve to death. I'll certainly never fly Quantas again.
Which reminds me of Air Asia. Just a wonderful airline. You can buy as much food as you can eat, and the food is really much better than most airlines. I fly Air Asia fairly often, and will most certainly fly with them in the future. Considering that they are a low-cost airline, they truly put most of the non-low-cost airlines to shame.
Cheers,
Ryan