Hi jumpberry,
I've got close to 5,000 hours on Dash-8's, split evenly between the classics and the Q400. While they feel the turbulence a little more because of the aforementioned reasons, they're a very safe airplane. They've always brought me home and in all that time, I can count only three or four times where something happened that required us to divert because of a system failure. But even then the diversion was as a precautionary measure, not because the failure was dire. The Q400 can lose an engine at rotation speed and still climb at 1,000 to 1,500 feet per minute on the remaining engine. The old classics would climb at around 300 to 800 feet per minute. That's far in excess of what is required by regulation. The Q400 can lose an engine at altitude and, depending on weight and temperature, will be able to maintain an altitude of 15,000 to 21,000 feet. That means you can lose an engine anywhere in North America and still be at least 1,000 feet above the highest terrain, if not more. It can sometimes feel like a rollercoaster, but it is far safer than one.
As for Jazz itself. I'm not a Jazz pilot, but like the people above and over on AvCanada who answered your question there, I'd fly on them any day of the week. They have a very robust training program and their maintenance department is second to none. They've successfully kept some of the highest time Dash-8s and CRJs in the world flying. Yes, they've had their fair share of incidents and they are among the top airlines on AeroInside and AvHearald for reported incidents. But there are two reasons for that:
a) they have a large fleet that flies a lot. They fly over 200,000 sectors each year. Even though they have the fifth highest number of incidents on AeroInside, you have to look at the other airlines that share the top of the list with them. American, Delta, United, Lufthansa, Southwest, BA; All very safe airlines, with a very large footprint. As the number of sectors flown goes up, so too will the number of reported incidents. That's just the nature of the beast.
b) Canada has a very strong reporting culture. Simon over on AvHearald states he will not publish all the reports that come out of Canada as we'd look like the most unsafe country in the world. Canada, despite our faults, has a very safe and transparent transportation industry. We report on times that pilots are being safe (rejected takeoffs, go-arounds, etc.) in the same manner we report an engine shutdown. Not all jurisdictions do this, and it skews the data to make Canadian airlines look unsafe. That's the same reason you'll find our American cousins in the same boat, a very robust reporting culture. I'd rather work in this system any day of the week.
The flight from PDX to anywhere is always a beautiful one, especially once you go north from the Pudget Sound toward YVR. I hope the weather turns out decent and you can enjoy the scenery. It's one of the most scenic flights in the world that way - distracting for passengers and crew alike!