Finish your manuscript and make sure it is free of grammar errors. While experienced novelists might be able to sell a proposal for a novel, first-time novelists need to have their manuscripts completed.
Check publisher guidelines for how they prefer to receive manuscript inquiries. Publisher guidelines vary widely. Write down the guidelines in a notebook so you can refer to them later.
Submit your manuscript queries to publishing companies that publish novels in the genre of your manuscript. Some will accept one-page queries. Other publishers will accept sample submissions of three chapters. Make notes of what you submitted and to which publisher. The guidelines on a publisher's website will usually list a typical response time. As noted, many Canadian publishers receive government assistance, which restricts them to accepting manuscripts from Canadian authors only, thus improving your odds of acceptance.
Continue submitting inquiries and sample chapters until you get a positive response. There will typically be a request to see the entire manuscript. Send it immediately. If you limit yourself to submitting the entire manuscript to only one publisher at a time, you can say it's an exclusive submission and request a speedier response.
Keep submitting until you receive an offer to publish your novel.
Write another novel and repeat the submission process if you don't get your first novel accepted. Many published authors later reveal that they had written earlier novels but failed to find publishers for them.