Is there a way to explain this to Canada customs/immigration and continue to drive the leased vehicle inside Canada and across the US/Canada border without creating any problems.

I am planning on using my friend's address in the US as the "garaging" address for the leased car and continue to register in US until the lease ends.

Any feedback and experiences are appreciated. Thank you.

For example, many lease contracts that are signed here in Canada, by Canadians, prohibit Canadians from bringing a leased car to the USA for a period of greater than 20 days.

Such a clause is usually included because the dealership, or credit company, owns the car, and the person leasing the vehicle is not the actual owner. And thus, the actual owners would rather that the vehicle be kept within their country.

In this particular case, if your lease contract contains such a clause then it would violate the terms of the lease, as well as the wishes of the actual owner of the vehicle, to bring that vehicle out of the USA for a period greater than specified in the lease contract. In some cases violating such a term, and taking the vehicle to a foreign country, may actually be viewed as theft of the vehicle, since the vehicle exits from the protective jurisdiction of the country in which it was originally leased.

And thus we can not recommend that one violate the terms of the lease contract, in any way.

Note, that there is also the issue that the vehicle would have to be "tagged" with a Canadian license plate, if the holder of the vehicle has a Canadian address and intends to keep the vehicle in Canada for a prolonged period.