we got a few artificial turf, and it looks more are coming, Pele is also a admirer of artificial turf, he did played in the Astroturf of Giants stadium when he was with the Cosmos http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-pitches_sports_feature&prov=reuters&type=lgns
I'm a fan of it only if it's nessary...for example Porto against Russia being played in -11 c that could have been played indoor on an artificial turf.
But to make it of any use then you have to have indoor/roofed stadiums, Canada can't support futeball enough to have roofed stadiums. and it seems that with Football they are going away from the roofed stadiums. eg: the TOronto Argonauts are looking at playing outdoors in a smaller stadium (College I believe) much like the Montreal alouets
Not only for the countries in the "North Pole", but also to the undeveloped world...or the equatorian countries. A country like Cape Verde, where it rains very little (They have to take the salt away of the sea water to get the amount of potable water they nedd), artificial grass is a need to the game development. Cape Verde is a poor country, with low quantities of water...can't afford to have many natural grass fields (not even one...). Also countries like Timor, where it sometimes rains for 2 months, almost without a brake, artificial grass fields are essencial.
Field turf looks and plays almost like real grass so I can understand small clubs in Portugal using field turf (I believe some clubs in Portugal already do), since it wouldn't cost as much to maintain, but I'm still not a fan of it. Nothing beats real grass.
Although I understand the financial need for artificial turf, nothing will ever compare to grass,and the ever present spot of dirt in front of the goal mouth. In my playing days, if my uniform wasn't dirty it felt like I didn't even play. While technology has given us artificial turf that is miles ahead of the crap Pele played on at Giants Stadium in the 70's, grass is still the way to go. FIFA should always stick to mandatory grass fields for all major competitions. While allowing it at lower levels were the cost for field upkeep is just too much for the smaller clubs to handle.