Recommendation 
 My recommendation is for Skookum1 as follows to get up to speed on how to best use sources on Wikipedia, please pick a topic that you find interesting and write about it.  It might help to create a new article in your userspace, for example.  Then, plan on taking that article through the article improvement process, from creation to DYK, from GA to FA.  Along the way, make special note of how the sourcing requirements get tighter, and how more is demanded from editors.  Of course, the quality of sources will vary by topic, so a lot depends on what you are writing about. I think you'll find that if you are writing about Canadian history, the expectation is that the sources will be of the highest quality and that page numbers will be de rigueur.  Obviously, this isn't written in stone, since guidelines only make recommendations, but the best way to learn about this is by participating in the process.