The Can-Am is made by Bombardier, Canadian company - pretty cool, have you seen the KTM Xbow - really cool too!
Can AM is supposed to be getting back into MX too!
All in all - I find that KTM is no different than any of the Japanese bikes, your friend may think really highly about his baby, but really, they're just overpriced with no advantages over the Japanese, actually, I see more disadvantages such as:
They come with some performance parts you may need to pay extra for on a Japanese bike - BUT - are these parts the parts you WOULD have chosen? (Renthal bars stock but what if you want Pro Tapers? - it's money spent...)
When it breaks (which it will) your repair bills are higher, parts take longer to come in (dealers don't stock everything), there are less OEM clone parts available so it's ALWAYS top dollar.
When it comes to racing, its never the bike that wins anyways.
We put about 150 HARD miles on our dirtbikes this past weekend, the only thing I did was change my sons gear oil afterwards because he runs full WFO all the time - todays 8 year olds with no fear of anything!
If they were KTM's I'd have to do some TLC to them or pay the piper.