Since you're not requiring your phone to be fancy, I'd think that what's more important for you to consider is the service provider. Out of the four obvious choices of Fido, Rogers, Telus, and Bell, IMO, Fido has some of the better packages. They have a $25/month plan right now which gives you unlimited incoming calls/text messages (all incoming calls to your phone are free). On top of this, you get 1000 weekend and evening minutes and 100 weekday minutes. This is an awesome deal, and I'm actually going to switch over to this plan soon.
As for durable phones, from personal experience, my Nokia has been super durable. I too, don't feel the need for the $400 phone with the fancy ring feature, digital camera and bright lights, so I chose to go with the FREE phone when I signed up with Fido 2 years ago. I dropped it down three floors on the stairs of the university. The basing broke open, but I put it back together and continued using it!
Other than Nokia, I also used to have a Motorola Startac... trouble!