It sounds like you are flying AA LAX-YYZ which is a 738 and generally on-time; blizzards that close YYZ do happen, but less than 1 day per year. Still a bit tiring routing, and from a comfort standpoint doing 1 night hotel in YYZ would be much better as well as removing the mis-connect risk. But if you consider ORD to be too high risk, then YYZ is not for you (it has the same delay percentages as ORD, maybe slightly better due to less lake-effect snow ... you have to go to BUF for that). LAX-HKG is a much nicer flight, and even in F flying LAX-YYZ-HKG will not be enjoyable after the 15 hour mark.