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I imagine what you guys are talking about is a matter of territorial rights.
If the book is published internationally, it's often the case that different publishers hold rights in different territories. For example, Random House holds the Canadian rights to Life of Pi, while I believe Penguin holds rights in other territories. I haven't checked, but I would imagine you will find different prices for that book, depending on which edition you are looking at. Kindle, presumably, carries the US edition, while Kobo carries the Canadian edition.
Even on Kobo alone, you will find different prices for the same book. Colin McAdam's "Fall," for example, will show up in two different editions if you do a search on Kobo. It is $2 more expensive for the Canadian edition. If you're in Canada, you won't be able to buy the cheaper edition, since it would be illegal for Kobo to sell it in Canada -- that publisher doesn't hold Canadian rights.
Prices for books from Canadian publishers will necessarily be higher since Canadian publishers have a much smaller market to serve, and need to set higher prices in order to make up for the lower profit margins.
Also, different ebook suppliers have different arrangements with publishers. Kobo is among the more publisher-friendly, which is why they have the best selection of titles. Kindle tries to force pricing that makes ebook publishing unprofitable. The downside, of course, is that Kobo is unable to offer many titles for as low a price as Kindle ... but that's because Kindle is predatory.
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